slough

SaySLUF/slʌf/

Verbsloughs, sloughing, sloughed

Noun pluralsloughs

9 meanings of slough

Practice

1
verbintransitive
To shed or cast off skin or another outer layer, or (of such a layer) to come loose and fall, flake, or slide away.
Wet snow can slough off steep slopes in small avalanches.
As the riverbank dried, chunks of clay sloughed into the water.
UsageUsually with off: dead skin sloughs off, paint sloughs off the fence.
Similarshed, peel, flake, slide
Note
It travels well beyond skin. Miners use it for material that has sloughed off the walls of a working, and an avalanche can slough off a mountainside. Whatever the layer, the picture is of a surface coming away in sheets or flakes.
2
SLOW/slaʊ/
nouncountable
A swamp, marsh, or area of soft, muddy ground, especially one formed as or by the backwater of a river.
Cypress knees rose out of the dark water of the slough.
After the spring rains, the river's backwater spreads into a wooded slough.
Similarswamp, marsh, bog, bayou, wetland
Note
In the eastern United States the word names wooded backwater, and the place can come and go with the river: Ulysses S. Grant's memoirs describe a dry depression in the woods that became "a slough or bayou" at high water. Elsewhere in North America the same word means a tidal delta channel or a prairie pond, so the landscape decides which is meant.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
Ulysses S. Grant’s memoirs describe a dry depression in the woods that became "a slough or bayou" at high water; the quotation and attribution are accurate. gutenberg.org
3
SLOW/slaʊ/
tidal channelnoundialectalUSWesterncountable
A side channel in a river delta, usually flushed by the tide.
Kayakers explore the sloughs that wind between the delta's islands.
Twice a day the tide pushes salt water up the slough.
Similarchannel, creek
4
SLOW/slaʊ/
low moodnouncountable
A state of depression or very low spirits.
The team fell into a slough of self-doubt after three straight defeats.
Losing the championship sent the whole team into a slough of despond that lasted for weeks.
UsageUsually a slough of despair, self-pity or despond, often after fall into or climb out of.
Similarfunk, slump, depression, rut
5
dead tissue (sore)nouncountable or uncountable
Moist, cream or yellowish dead tissue that collects on the bed of a wound, sore, or ulcer.
Removing the slough helps an ulcer heal from the base.
The dressing softens the slough so that it can be lifted away.

Less common meanings

6
reptile's old skinnouncountable or uncountable
The skin that a snake or other reptile has shed.
A complete slough, eyes and all, lay coiled beside the rock.
Biologists can identify a species from the scale pattern on its slough.
Note
Older writing has a snake cast its slough, the thin whole skin it wriggles out of and leaves behind. Rider Haggard's She uses the picture for a woman shaking off her white wrappings and coming forth shining, like a snake that has cast its slough.
7
SLOW/slaʊ/
prairie pondnoundialectalCanadian Prairiescountable
A small, often alkaline pond, many of which lie in potholes left by glaciers.
Every quarter section seemed to have its own slough, ringed with cattails and loud with ducks.
Prairie sloughs are vital nesting grounds for waterfowl.
Similarpond
Note
Prairie speech pairs it with pothole, the hollow a retreating glacier left behind, and the two words often name the same water. These small wetlands are now known as some of the world's most productive ecosystems, and they serve as nesting grounds for ducks and other waterfowl.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 5 facts
Prairie wetlands are called both potholes and sloughs. usgs.gov
Prairie potholes are depressions left by retreating glaciers. montana.edu
Pothole and slough can name the same prairie wetland. usgs.gov
Prairie pothole wetlands are among the world's most productive ecosystems. wetlands.el.erdc.dren.mil
These wetlands provide nesting and breeding habitat for ducks and other waterfowl. epa.gov
8
skip schoolverbdialectalUSWesternintransitive
To be absent from school without permission.
Half the senior class sloughed on the first warm day of spring.
If you slough again, the principal will call your parents.
Similarditch
Note
It belongs to the same word as the "discard" meaning, not to the swampy slough, so a class or a school day is shed rather than waded through.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
The truancy sense belongs to the same word as the discard sense, rather than the swamp noun: Wiktionary places both verbs under Etymology 1 and the swamp noun under Etymology 2. en.wiktionary.org
9
card gameverbtransitive
In card games, to discard a card.
Unable to follow suit, West chose to slough a small diamond.
Declarer sloughed a losing club on the long spade.
UsageCard players often spell it sluff, as in ruff and sluff.
Similardiscard
Note
In trick-taking games such as bridge, a player sloughs when unable to follow suit, throwing a card of another suit, usually one that will not be missed.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
In trick-taking games, sloughing means discarding a card of another suit when unable to follow suit. en.wikipedia.org

Practice

Can you tell the meanings of slough apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.

Origins

Meanings 1, 5–6, 8–9

Proto-Germanic *sluk-, which may be related to *sleupaną, "to sneak or slip" (Gothic has sliupan), gave Middle English slogh, slugh or slouh. Middle Low German slô, a sheath or the skin on a hoof, is akin, and Old Saxon slūk ("snakeskin") and Middle High German slūch, the source of German Schlauch ("waterskin, hose"), may also be related.

Meanings 2–4, 7

In Old English this was slōh, a word that probably goes back to Proto-Germanic *slōhaz. By Middle English it had become slough, meaning a muddy place, a swamp, or a mire.