slough
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See also: Slough
English[edit]
Etymology 1[edit]
From Middle English slogh, slugh, slouh, from Proto-Germanic *sluk-, perhaps related to *sleupaną (“to slip, sneak”) (compare Gothic 𐍃𐌻𐌹𐌿𐍀𐌰𐌽 (sliupan)).
Akin to Middle Low German slô (“sheath, skin on a hoof”). Perhaps also related with Old Saxon slūk (“snakeskin”), Middle High German slūch, whence German Schlauch (“waterskin, hose”).
Alternative forms[edit]
Pronunciation[edit]
Noun[edit]
slough (countable and uncountable, plural sloughs)
- The skin shed by a snake or other reptile.
- That is the slough of a rattler; we must be careful.
- 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:
- And without more ado she stood up and shook the white wrappings from her, and came forth shining and splendid like some glittering snake when she has cast her slough; ay, and fixed her wonderful eyes upon me - more deadly than any Basilisk's - and pierced me through and through with their beauty, and sent her light laugh ringing through the air like chimes of silver bells.
- Dead skin on a sore or ulcer.
- This is the slough that came off of his skin after the burn.
Translations[edit]
the skin shed by a snake or other reptile
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dead skin on a sore or ulcer
Verb[edit]
slough (third-person singular simple present sloughs, present participle sloughing, simple past and past participle sloughed)
- (transitive) To shed (skin).
- This skin is being sloughed.
- Snakes slough their skin periodically.
- (intransitive) To slide off (like a layer of skin).
- A week after he was burned, a layer of skin on his arm sloughed off.
- 2013, Casey Watson, Mummy’s Little Helper: The heartrending true story of a young girl:
- The mud sloughed off her palms easily […]
- 2013 April 13, Michael Mello, “Avalanche forecaster killed in Utah avalanche”, in Los Angeles Times:
- An avalanche sloughing off a Utah mountainside killed a state Department of Transportation avalanche forecaster while he was surveying snow levels near a popular winter recreation area, authorities reported.
- (transitive, card games) To discard.
- East sloughed a heart.
- (intransitive, slang, Western US) To commit truancy, be absent from school without permission.
- Synonym: ditch
Derived terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
to shed (skin)
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of skin, to be shed
card games: to discard
to commit truancy
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Etymology 2[edit]
From Old English slōh, probably from Proto-Germanic *slōhaz.
Pronunciation[edit]
Noun[edit]
slough (plural sloughs)
- (Britain) A muddy or marshy area.
- 1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC:
- "That comed - as you call it - of being arrant asses," retorted the doctor, "and not having sense enough to know honest air from poison, and the dry land from a vile, pestiferous slough.
- (Eastern United States) A type of swamp or shallow lake system, typically formed as or by the backwater of a larger waterway, similar to a bayou with trees.
- We paddled under a canopy of trees through the slough.
- (Western United States) A secondary channel of a river delta, usually flushed by the tide.
- The Sacramento River Delta contains dozens of sloughs that are often used for water-skiing and fishing.
- A state of depression.
- John is in a slough.
- (Canadian Prairies) A small pond, often alkaline, many but not all formed by glacial potholes.
- Potholes or sloughs formed by a glacier’s retreat from the central plains of North America, are now known to be some of the world’s most productive ecosystems.
Derived terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
muddy or marshy area
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state of depression
Anagrams[edit]
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