slough

See also Slough

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English, akin to Middle High German slûch (“slough”) (whence German Schlauch (“tube, hose”)).

Alternative forms

Pronunciation

Noun

slough (plural sloughs)

  1. The skin shed by a snake or other reptile.
    That is the slough of a rattler; we must be careful.
  2. Dead skin on a sore or ulcer.
    This is the slough that came off of his skin after the burn.
Translations
the skin shed by a snake or other reptile
dead skin on a sore or ulcer

Verb

slough (third-person singular simple present sloughs, present participle sloughing, simple past and past participle sloughed)

  1. (transitive) To shed (skin).
    This skin is being sloughed.
  2. (intransitive) To slide off (like a layer of skin).
    A week after he was burned, a layer of skin on his arm sloughed off.
    • 2013, Casey Watson, Mummy’s Little Helper: The heartrending true story of a young girl:
      The mud sloughed off her palms easily […]
  3. (transitive, card games) To discard.
    East sloughed a heart.
Derived terms
  • slough off
Translations
to shed (skin)
of skin, to be shed
card games: to discard

Etymology 2

From Old English slōh, probably from Proto-Germanic *slōhaz.

Pronunciation

Noun

Wikipedia has an article on:

Wikipedia slough (plural sloughs)

  1. (UK) A muddy or marshy area.
    • 1883 "That comed - as you call it - of being arrant asses," retorted the doctor, "and not having sense enough to know honest air from poison, and the dry land from a vile, pestiferous slough. — Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
  2. (Eastern United States) 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.
  3. (Western United States) 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.
  4. A state of depression.
    John is in a slough.
  5. (Canadian Prairies) A small pond, often alkaine, many but not all are 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.
Derived terms
Translations
muddy or marshy area
type of swamp or shallow lake system
secondary channel of a river delta
state of depression

Anagrams

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Last modified on 15 April 2013, at 15:14