slough
See also: Slough
English
Etymology 1
From Middle English sloh. 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”).
Alternative forms
- sluff
Pronunciation
- enPR: slŭf, IPA(key): /slʌf/
Audio (US) (file) - Rhymes: -ʌf
Noun
slough (plural sloughs)
- The skin shed by a snake or other reptile.
- That is the slough of a rattler; we must be careful.
- 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
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dead skin on a sore or ulcer
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Verb
slough (third-person singular simple present sloughs, present participle sloughing, simple past and past participle sloughed)
- (transitive) To shed (skin).
- This skin is being sloughed.
- Snakes slough their skin periodically.
- (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 […]
- (transitive, card games) To discard.
- East sloughed a heart.
- (intransitive, slang, Western US) To commit truancy, be absent from school without permission.
- "Dude, Kaydn and Jarom are totally sloughing today!"
Derived terms
- slough off
Translations
to shed (skin)
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of skin, to be shed
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card games: to discard
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to commit truancy
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Etymology 2
From Old English slōh, probably from Proto-Germanic *slōhaz.
Pronunciation
- (General Australian, UK):
- enPR: slou, IPA(key): /slaʊ/
- Rhymes: -aʊ
- (US): enPR: slou, slo͞o, IPA(key): /slaʊ/, /sluː/
Audio (US) (file) - Rhymes: -aʊ
- Rhymes: -uː
Noun
slough (plural sloughs)
- (Britain) 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
- (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.
- (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.
- A state of depression.
- John is in a slough.
- (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.
Derived terms
- slough of despond
- sloughy
Translations
muddy or marshy area
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type of swamp or shallow lake system
secondary channel of a river delta
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state of depression
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Anagrams
- Loughs, ghouls, loughs