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• slough
  slough

  noun

  the outer layer of the skin of a snake, which is cast off periodically.
• Slough
  Slough

  noun

  an industrial town in SE central England, in Slough unitary authority, Berkshire; food products, high-tech industries. Pop: 126 276 (2001)

slough

¹ American  

[sluhf] / slʌf /

Or sluff

noun

1. 

   the outer layer of the skin of a snake, which is cast off periodically.

2. Pathology. a mass or layer of dead tissue separated from the surrounding or underlying tissue.

3. anything that is shed or cast off.

4. Cards. a discard.

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verb (used without object)

• sloughs,
  present (3rd person singular)
• sloughed,
  past participle,  past
• sloughing
  present participle

1. to be or become shed or cast off, as the slough of a snake.

2. to cast off a slough.

   Synonyms:

   molt

3. Pathology. to separate from the sound flesh, as a slough.

4. Cards. to discard a card or cards.

verb (used with object)

• sloughs,
  present (3rd person singular)
• sloughed,
  past participle,  past
• sloughing
  present participle

1. to dispose or get rid of; cast (often followed byoff ).

   to slough off a bad habit.

2. to shed as or like a slough.

3. Cards. to discard (cards).

verb phrase

1. slough over to treat as slight or trivial.

   to slough over a friend's mistake.

slough ² American  

[slau, sloo] / slaʊ, slu /

noun

1. a swamp or swamplike region.

2. Northern U.S. and Canada. Also slew, slue a usually shallow and slow-moving marshy or reedy body of water, such as one that provides drainage; wetland.

3. a hole full of mud or wet soil, such as one in a road.

4. a condition of degradation, despair, or helplessness.

   Exercise was one thing that helped to lift me out of the slough of depression.

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slough ¹ British  

/ slaʊ /

noun

1. a hollow filled with mud; bog

2. 1. (in the prairies) a large hole where water collects or the water in such a hole

   2. (in the northwest) a sluggish side channel of a river

   3. (on the Pacific coast) a marshy saltwater inlet

3. despair or degradation

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slough ² British  

/ slʌf /

noun

1. any outer covering that is shed, such as the dead outer layer of the skin of a snake, the cellular debris in a wound, etc

2. Also: sluff. bridge a discarded card

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verb

1. (often foll by off) to shed (a skin, etc) or (of a skin, etc) to be shed

2. Also: sluff. bridge to discard (a card or cards)

Slough ³ British  

/ slaʊ /

noun

1. an industrial town in SE central England, in Slough unitary authority, Berkshire; food products, high-tech industries. Pop: 126 276 (2001)

2. a unitary authority in SE central England, in Berkshire. Pop: 118 800 (2003 est). Area: 28 sq km (11 sq miles)

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slough Scientific  

/ slŭf /

1. The dead outer skin shed by a reptile or an amphibian.

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1. To shed an outer layer of skin.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• sloughiness
  noun
• sloughy
  adjective
• unsloughed
  adjective
• unsloughing
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Participles

• sloughing
  present
• sloughed
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• slough
  simple
• sloughs
  simple
• have sloughed
  perfect
• has sloughed
  perfect
• am sloughing
  progressive
• are sloughing
  progressive
• is sloughing
  progressive
• have been sloughing
  perfect progressive
• has been sloughing
  perfect progressive

Past

• sloughed
  simple
• had sloughed
  perfect
• was sloughing
  progressive
• were sloughing
  progressive
• had been sloughing
  perfect progressive

Future

• will slough
  simple
• will have sloughed
  perfect
• will be sloughing
  progressive
• will have been sloughing
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of slough¹

First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English slough, slugh(e), slouh “skin of a snake”; cognate with Low German sluwe, slu “husk, peel,” German Schlauch “skin, wineskin, bag”

Origin of slough²

First recorded before 900; Middle English slough(e), slouh(e) “muddy place, mud hole,” Old English slōh, slōg; cognate with Middle Low German slōch, Middle High German sluoche “ditch”; further origin uncertain

Explanation

When you slough, you get rid of the rough. To slough is to remove an outer layer, like filing dry skin from feet. You can slough away emotions too, like the heebie-jeebies you get thinking about dead skin from people's feet. Ew. Slough rhymes with "rough." It doesn't sound as though it'll give you a beautiful result, but when you slough away old skin, new skin appears. Snakes shed or slough off their skins as they grow and get rid of icky cells, and humans do the same, though fortunately we don't slough off one big skin as snakes do. Maybe it's best to slough off that mental image with a nicer one.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

slough Slough sloughs sloughed sloughing

Can Andy Burnham pull the U.K. out of its slough?

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 20, 2026

At the same time, there is growing concern about the health and environmental consequences of microplastics — the bits of degraded plastic that slough off as the product ages, or is used, or washed.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 31, 2024

Meaning, they tried to blast each other with powder, basically slough a mini avalanche or powder storm on top of each other.

From Seattle Times ● Mar. 1, 2024

It probably gets into the water as bits slough off when the bottle is squeezed or gets exposed to heat.

From Science Daily ● Jan. 8, 2024

There was a slough where our mother took us to pick orange berries.

From "The Woman Warrior" by Maxine Hong Kingston

“I switch out my pans, and I’m careful with knives and cutting boards to avoid cross contamination,” said Charlie Granquist, chef at Slough Farm.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 4, 2026

Support Staff Services Limited, Slough, failed to pay £119,715.13 to 323 workers.

From BBC ● Sep. 2, 2026

Unlike most of the Slough House misfits, River often drives the action sequences, which means you do a lot of running.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 17, 2026

The show stars Sir Gary as Jackson Lamb, the shabby and dischevelled yet competent head of Slough House whose trademark move is breaking wind.

From BBC ● Jun. 17, 2026

Following its south-easterly course across the dark plain their eyes were drawn to the majestic buildings of the Slough Crematorium.

From "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley

Today, abandoned barge cranes lie rusting and rotting in delta sloughs.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 17, 2026

But there's no small amount of controversy when it comes to marshes, mires, fens, bogs, vernal pools, prairie ponds, pocosins, sloughs, small streams, seasonal streams, and rain-dependent streams.

From Salon ● May 2, 2023

Signs of snowmelt-fueled deluge were everywhere in famed Yosemite Valley on Saturday as the normally placid Merced River surged over its banks, swamping roads, erasing swimming beaches, and turning meadows into murky sloughs.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 29, 2023

A portion of the lining of the uterus sloughs off during each menstrual period, and then builds up again in preparation for an implantation.

From Textbooks ● Jun. 9, 2022

The thaw and spring rains had turned parts of the roadway into muddy sloughs, and despite the coachman’s skill, early on the last morning they were stuck fast.

From "Lyddie" by Katherine Paterson

Oil prices sloughed off fresh Middle East violence.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 7, 2026

At a time when capitulating to the mainstream was regarded as selling out, R.E.M.’s move to a major label stung, as if the band had sloughed off its loyalists for the teeming masses.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 5, 2024

I’d explain how my daughter sloughed off embryos that were surgically implanted at $30,000 a pop.

From Salon ● Feb. 26, 2024

The state has relatively young mountains from a geology standpoint, meaning much of its steep terrain is still in motion and covered in loose rocks and soil that can be sloughed off easily.

From Seattle Times ● Feb. 6, 2024

Some dirt had sloughed off an embankment and some track had moved itself a bit.

From "Life Is So Good" by George Dawson

However, some men have ended up in A&E with a penis turning black and skin "sloughing off" after a botched procedure.

From BBC ● Aug. 15, 2026

At best, the idea relates to some kind of individual flourishing, the opposite of corporate serfdom, a sloughing off of organizational chains leading to an explosion of creativity.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 16, 2026

And yet here he is, sloughing off yet another weekend for the cause—ignoring all evidence to the contrary that a better world is possible.

From Slate ● Apr. 9, 2025

Motherhood has made Slate gentler on herself, sloughing off feelings of foolishness, self-criticism and self-doubt.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 22, 2024

It wasn’t as deliberate as deciding, at age six, to become an atheist, but more like an imperceptible sloughing of layers.

From "Dreaming in Cuban" by Cristina García