slough
/slʌf/ noun, verb, proper noun
Forms sloughs sloughing sloughed sluff slue slew
- noun The skin shed by a snake or other reptile. “That is the slough of a rattler; we must be careful.”
- noun Dead skin on a sore or ulcer. “This is the slough that came off of his skin after the burn.”
- verb (transitive) To shed skin or outer layers. “This skin is being sloughed.”
- verb (intransitive) To slide off or flake off, as an outer layer, such as skin, might do. “A week after he was burned, a layer of skin on his arm sloughed off.”
- verb (transitive, card games) To discard. “East sloughed a heart.”
- verb (intransitive, slang, Western US) To commit truancy, be absent from school without permission.
- noun A marshy or muddy area.
- noun (Northern US, Southern US) A type of swamp or shallow lake system, typically formed as or by the backwater of a larger waterway, similar to a bayou with trees. “We paddled under a canopy of trees through the slough.”
- noun (Western US) A secondary channel of a river delta, usually flushed by the tide. “The Sacramento River Delta contains dozens of sloughs that are often used for water-skiing and fishing.”
- noun A state of depression. “John is in a slough.”
- noun (Canadian Prairies) A small pond, often alkaline, many but not all formed by glacial potholes. “Potholes or sloughs formed by a glacier’s retreat from the central plains of North America, are now known to be some of the world’s most productive ecosystems.”
- proper noun A town in east Berkshire, England (formerly Buckinghamshire), close to Heathrow Airport.
- proper noun A unitary authority and borough of Berkshire, the Slough Borough Council.
Synonyms
Etymology
From Middle English slogh, slugh, slouh, from Proto-Germanic *sluk-, perhaps related to *sleupaną (“to slip, sneak”) (compare Gothic 𐍃𐌻𐌹𐌿𐍀𐌰𐌽 (sliupan)).
Akin to Middle Low German slô (“sheath, skin on a hoof”). Perhaps also related with Old Saxon slūk (“snakeskin”), Middle High German slūch, whence German Schlauch (“waterskin, hose”).
From Middle English slough (“muddy place; swamp; mire”), Old English slōh, probably from Proto-Germanic *slōhaz.
From Middle English Slo, perhaps related to the noun slough (“marsh”) (referring to the land) or to sloe (referring to bushes).
Webster’s 1913
- adjective Slow. [Obs.] Chaucer.
- noun A place of deep mud or mire; a hole full of mire. Chaucer.
- noun [Pronounced sloo.]
- imp. of Slee, to slay. Slew. Chaucer.
Etymology [OE. slogh, slough, AS. sloh a hollow place; cf. MHG. sluch an abyss, gullet, G. schlucken to swallow; also Gael. & Ir. sloc a pit, pool. ditch, Ir. slug to swallow. Gr. 1. A place of deep mud or mire; a hole full of mire. Chaucer. He's here stuck in a slough. Milton. 2. [Pronounced sloo.]
Etymology [OE. slugh, slouh; cf. MHG. sl the skin of a serpent, G. schlauch a skin, a leather bag or bottle.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “slough”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details