slough 1 [slou for 1, 2, 4 ; sloo for 3 ] SYNONYMS | EXAMPLES | WORD ORIGIN noun an area of soft, muddy ground; swamp or swamplike region.
a hole full of mire, as in a road.
Also slew , slue . Northern U.S. and Canadian a marshy or reedy pool, pond, inlet, backwater, or the like. a condition of degradation, despair, or helplessness.
Origin of slough 1 before 900; Middle English; Old English slōh; cognate with Middle Low German slōch, Middle High German sluoche ditch
noun the outer layer of the skin of a snake, which is cast off periodically.
Pathology a mass or layer of dead tissue separated from the surrounding or underlying tissue.
anything that is shed or cast off.
Cards a discard.
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verb (used without object) to be or become shed or cast off, as the slough of a snake.
to cast off a slough.
Pathology to separate from the sound flesh, as a slough.
Cards to discard a card or cards.
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verb (used with object) to dispose or get rid of; cast (often followed by off ): to slough off a bad habit.
to shed as or like a slough.
Cards to discard (cards).
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Verb Phrases slough over , to treat as slight or trivial: to slough over a friend's mistake.
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Origin of slough 2 1250–1300; Middle English slughe, slouh skin of a snake; cognate with German Schlauch skin, bag
Related forms slough·i·ness , noun slough·y , adjective un·sloughed , adjective un·slough·ing , adjective Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019
Related Words for slough marshland ,
fen ,
mire ,
glade ,
quagmire ,
mud ,
moor ,
marsh ,
swampland ,
bog ,
quag ,
morass ,
swale ,
polder ,
wetland ,
exuviate ,
give ,
molt ,
sprinkle ,
slip Examples from the Web for slough Contemporary Examples of slough 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.
Historical Examples of slough 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.
British Dictionary definitions for slough noun a hollow filled with mud; bog
(sluː ) US and Canadian (in the prairies) a large hole where water collects or the water in such a hole (in the northwest) a sluggish side channel of a river (on the Pacific coast) a marshy saltwater inlet despair or degradation
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Derived Forms sloughy , adjective Word Origin for slough Old English slōh; related to Middle High German sluoche ditch, Swedish slaga swamp
noun 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
Also: sluff bridge a discarded card
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verb (often foll by off) to shed (a skin, etc) or (of a skin, etc) to be shed
Also: sluff bridge to discard (a card or cards)
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Derived Forms sloughy , adjective Word Origin for slough C13: of Germanic origin; compare Middle Low German slū husk, German Schlauch hose, Norwegian slō fleshy part of a horn
noun an industrial town in SE central England, in Slough unitary authority, Berkshire; food products, high-tech industries. Pop: 126 276 (2001)
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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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for slough n.1 "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.
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v. "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 .
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n.2 "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."
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
n. A layer or mass of dead tissue separated from surrounding living tissue, as in a wound, a sore, or an inflammation.
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v. To separate from surrounding living tissue. Used of dead tissue.
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The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Noun The dead outer skin shed by a reptile or an amphibian.
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Verb To shed an outer layer of skin.
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The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
