sludge
[sluhj]
- mud, mire, or ooze; slush.
- a deposit of ooze at the bottom of a body of water.
- any of various more or less mudlike deposits or mixtures.
- the sediment in a steam boiler or water tank.
- broken ice, as on the sea.
- a mixture of some finely powdered substance and water.
- sediment deposited during the treatment of sewage.
- Also called activated sludge. Bacteriology. sewage sediment that contains a heavy growth of microorganisms, resulting from vigorous aeration.
- a fine, mudlike powder produced by a mining drill.
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Origin of sludge
1640–50; variant of dial. slutch, slitch, Middle English slich slime, wet mud (compare its derivative slucched muddy); apparently of expressive orig.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for sludge
Contemporary Examples
Forensic tests showed the birds died after becoming coated in sludge, Hubbard said.
Two Texas Regulators Tried to Enforce the Rules. They Were Fired.David Hasemyer, InsideClimate News
December 9, 2014
Rain had fallen heavily overnight and the streets were caked in sludge.
The sludge was sent by rail and spread around on a defunct resort ranch near Sierra Blanca.
U.S. Drug and Immigration Checkpoints Take Toll on Border TownsAndrew Becker, G. W. Schulz
June 18, 2013
In 1992 the EPA removed 97,000 tons of liquid waste, and 60 tons of sludge from the site.
Historical Examples
They are quite accustomed there to dealing with the precipitation of sludge.
It is found at Birmingham that one ton of sludge with 90 per cent.
One who has noticed it in the Teviot says, that the inhabitants there call it "sludge."
No sea-weed, no fishy particles, no sludge, no beards of oysters.
EremaR. D. Blackmore
The mud or sludge would form into scale if allowed to remain.
sludge
- soft mud, snow, etc
- any deposit or sediment
- a surface layer of ice that has a slushy appearance
- (in sewage disposal) the solid constituents of sewage that precipitate during treatment and are removed for subsequent purification
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Word Origin
C17: probably related to slush
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for sludge
n.
"mud, mire, ooze," 1640s, of uncertain origin, possibly a variant of Middle English slutch "mud, mire," or a variant of slush (n.).
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper