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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  

[slou, 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  

/ 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 ³ 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 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

But competition in the industry is heating up as other insurers slough off inflationary distortions, analysts said.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 20, 2026

Aiello, who has monitored environmental conditions at the slough for more than a decade, said he was shocked by the results.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 29, 2025

While disease is a natural part of marine ecosystems, increased runoff, global climate change and a slough of human impacts stress corals and cause disease.

From Science Daily ● May 30, 2024

Kelly has run the slough exhibition three times since 2014.

From Seattle Times ● Apr. 27, 2024

There I was, padding about in a dressing-gown, making a slough of sentiment out of a commonplace hotel bedroom.

From "Rebecca" by Daphne du Maurier

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

And as author Mick Herron continues to write new books in the Slough House series, there’s no immediate end in sight.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 1, 2026

The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead, Bracknell Forest, Slough, West Berkshire and Wokingham councils all said they will soon decide how to implement the Crisis and Resilience Fund.

From BBC ● Apr. 8, 2026

There have also been reports of high surf near Half Moon Bay in San Francisco and some flooding in the Elkhorn Slough area in the northern part of Monterey County on Hwy 1.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 3, 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

The last of four breaches on Steamboat and Union sloughs should be done by mid-October, allowing the historical tidal channels, marsh and mud flats to breathe again.

From Seattle Times ● Oct. 12, 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

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

From Salon ● Feb. 26, 2024

The strongest visual effect of suspended sediment was the aggregation of sediment particles on the jellyfish after just ~1.5 hours of incubation, to which the jellyfish started to produce excess mucus that slowly sloughed off.

From Science Daily ● Nov. 21, 2023

Bits of soft rock sloughed off in the blaze, and a huge fireball briefly flared like a torch in the night sky.

From Scientific American ● Jul. 31, 2023

Avery sloughed into his heavy jacket, pulled on helmet, gloves and breathing apparatus.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 5, 2023

He turned his back on her and quickly sloughed off his sodden clothes, spreading them beside the fire.

From "Six of Crows" by Leigh Bardugo

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

But consider adding on a scrub and sloughing off a layer or two of skin — it’s my favorite way to enter the new year.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 1, 2025

Nancy saw what she described as “horrendous gut lesions” in some of the animals, caused by sloughing of the intestinal lining.

From "The Hot Zone" by Richard Preston