clough
See also: Clough
English
Etymology 1
From Middle English clough, clow, clogh, Old English *clōh, from Proto-Germanic *klanhaz, *klanhō (“cleft, sluice, abyss”), of unknown origin. Cognate with Scots cleuch (“gorge; ravine”), Old High German klāh (in placenames), Old High German klingo, klinga (“brook, cataract, gulf, rapids”). Perhaps conflated or influenced by Old Norse klofi (“a cleft or rift in a hill, ravine”); compare Dutch kloof (“a slit, crevice, chink”). See also cling, clove.
Alternative forms
- cleugh, cleuch (Scotland)
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /klʌf/, /klaʊ/
Audio of /klaʊ/ (Canadian English) (file) Audio of /klʌf/ (Canadian English) (file)
Noun
clough (plural cloughs)
- (Northern England, US) A narrow valley; a cleft in a hillside; a ravine, glen, or gorge.
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Nares to this entry?)
- A sluice used in returning water to a channel after depositing its sediment on the flooded land.
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Knight to this entry?)
- A cliff; a rocky precipice.
- (dialectal) The cleft or fork of a tree; crotch.
- (dialectal) A wood; weald.
Alternative forms
- cloff
Noun
clough (plural cloughs)
- Formerly an allowance of two pounds in every three hundredweight after the tare and tret are subtracted; now used only in a general sense, of small deductions from the original weight.
References
- “clough” in Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary, 2001–2019.
- clough in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.