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Slough

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slough¹

  • /slʌf/ US, UK
  • /slɐf/ Australia, New Zealand
  • /slʊf/ Northern England

Rhymes with -ʌf

Where it comes from

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”).

noun sloughs · sluff

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

verb sloughs · sloughing · sloughed · sluff

  1. transitive To shed skin or outer layers. This skin is being sloughed.
  2. 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.
  3. transitive To discard. East sloughed a heart.
  4. US, Western, intransitive, slang To commit truancy, be absent from school without permission.

slough²

  • /slaʊ/
  • /slaʊ/ US
  • /sluː/ US

Rhymes with -aʊ, -uː

Where it comes from

From Middle English slough (“muddy place; swamp; mire”), Old English slōh, probably from Proto-Germanic *slōhaz.

noun sloughs · slue · slew

  1. A marshy or muddy area. "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.
  2. 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.
  3. US, Western 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 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.

Slough³

  • /slaʊ/

Rhymes with -aʊ

Where it comes from

From Middle English Slo, perhaps related to the noun slough (“marsh”) (referring to the land) or to sloe (referring to bushes).

proper noun

  1. A town in east Berkshire, England (formerly Buckinghamshire), close to Heathrow Airport.
  2. A unitary authority and borough of Berkshire, the Slough Borough Council.

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