“troughs” is a form of
trough
UK /tɹɒf/ · US /tɹɔθ/ noun, verb
Forms troughs troughing troughed
- noun A long, narrow container, open on top, for feeding or watering animals. “One of Harriet's chores was to slop the pigs' trough each morning and evening.”
- noun Any similarly shaped container.
- noun (Australia, New Zealand) A rectangular container used for washing or rinsing clothes. “Ernest threw his paint brushes into a kind of trough he had fashioned from sheet metal that he kept in the sink.”
- noun A short, narrow canal designed to hold water until it drains or evaporates. “There was a small trough that the sump pump emptied into; it was filled with mosquito larvae.”
- noun (colloquial) An undivided metal urinal (plumbing fixture)
- noun (Canada) A gutter under the eaves of a building; an eaves trough. “The troughs were filled with leaves and needed clearing.”
- noun (agriculture, Australia, New Zealand) A channel for conveying water or other farm liquids (such as milk) from place to place by gravity; any ‘U’ or ‘V’ cross-sectioned irrigation channel.
- noun A long, narrow depression between waves or ridges; the low portion of a wave cycle. “The buoy bobbed between the crests and troughs of the waves moving across the bay.”
- verb To eat in a vulgar style, as if from a trough. “He troughed his way through three meat pies.”
Synonyms
Antonyms
Etymology
From Middle English trogh, from Old English troh, trog (“a trough, tub, basin, vessel for containing liquids or other materials”), from Proto-West Germanic *trog, from Proto-Germanic *trugą, *trugaz, from Proto-Indo-European *drukós, enlargement of *dóru (“tree”).
See also West Frisian trôch, Dutch trog, German Trog, Danish trug, Swedish tråg; also Middle Irish drochta (“wooden basin”), Old Armenian տարգալ (targal, “ladle, spoon”). More at tree.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A long, hollow vessel, generally for holding water or other liquid, especially one formed by excavating a log longitudinally on one side; a long tray; also, a wooden channel for conveying water, as to a mill wheel.
- noun Any channel, receptacle, or depression, of a long and narrow shape; as, trough between two ridges, etc. Trough gutter (Arch.), a rectangular or V-shaped gutter, usually hung below the eaves of a house.
Etymology [OE. trough, trogh, AS. trog, troh; akin to D., G., & Icel. trog, Sw. tråg, Dan. trug; probably originally meaning, made of wood, and akin to E. tree. Tree, and cf. Trug.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “trough”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details