In Sydney it was across the Harbor, in London it was outside the city in Basildon or slough.
A week after the inauguration, his wife, Lady Bird, watched with worry as a “slough of despond” surrounded her husband.
In a moment, by one word, I can throw you back into the slough from whence I dragged you.
As he came down to the slough, all too late he had realized whither he was heading.
Are we to struggle out of one slough only to sink into another?
One false step and you are over a precipice, or up to your neck in a slough.
Anderson was convinced that the bed of that slough, if uncovered, could unfold a tale.
Lecour looked up; but it was not enough to revive him from so deep a slough.
On Monday, February 26, the garrison was sunk in a slough of despondency.
When Palmer first entered the city he found it situated in a slough.
"muddy place," Old English sloh "soft, muddy ground," of uncertain origin. Cf. Middle Low German sloch "muddy place," Middle High German sluoche "ditch." Figurative use (e.g. of moral sunkenness or Bunyan's "Slough of Despond," 1678) attested from mid-13c.
"to cast off" (as the skin of a snake or other animal), 1720, originally of diseased tissue, from Middle English noun slough "shed skin of a snake" (see slough (n.)). Related: Sloughed; sloughing.
"cast-off skin" (of a snake or other animal), early 14c., slughe, slouh, probably related to Old Saxon sluk "skin of a snake," Middle High German sluch "snakeskin, wineskin," Middle Low German slu "husk, peel, skin," German Schlauch "wineskin;" from Proto-Germanic *sluk-, of uncertain origin, perhaps from PIE root *sleug- "to glide."
slough (slŭf)
n.
A layer or mass of dead tissue separated from surrounding living tissue, as in a wound, a sore, or an inflammation. v. sloughed, slough·ing, sloughs
To separate from surrounding living tissue. Used of dead tissue.
verb
To waste time; to start to lose momentum or interest in a project: sloughing off on the homework