# slough

Pronunciation: say "SLUF" /slʌf/

## Verb

1. To shed or cast off skin or another outer layer, or (of such a layer) to come loose and fall, flake, or slide away.
   - Simple: To shed an outer layer such as dead skin, or for such a layer to come loose and fall or slide off.
   - _Wet snow can slough off steep slopes in small avalanches._
   - _As the riverbank dried, chunks of clay sloughed into the water._
8. To be absent from school without permission. *(dialectal, US, Western)*
   - Simple: To stay away from school when you are supposed to be there.
   - _Half the senior class sloughed on the first warm day of spring._
   - _If you slough again, the principal will call your parents._
9. In card games, to discard a card.
   - Simple: In card games, to get rid of a card from your hand.
   - _Unable to follow suit, West chose to slough a small diamond._
   - _Declarer sloughed a losing club on the long spade._

## Noun

2. A swamp, marsh, or area of soft, muddy ground, especially one formed as or by the backwater of a river. (pronounced: say "SLOW" /slaʊ/)
   - Simple: An area of wet, soft, muddy ground or shallow water, such as a swamp or marsh.
   - _Cypress knees rose out of the dark water of the slough._
   - _After the spring rains, the river's backwater spreads into a wooded slough._
3. A side channel in a river delta, usually flushed by the tide. *(dialectal, US, Western)* (pronounced: say "SLOW" /slaʊ/)
   - Simple: A small side channel near a river's mouth that the tide fills and empties.
   - _Kayakers explore the sloughs that wind between the delta's islands._
   - _Twice a day the tide pushes salt water up the slough._
4. A state of depression or very low spirits. (pronounced: say "SLOW" /slaʊ/)
   - Simple: A state of feeling very sad and low.
   - _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._
5. Moist, cream or yellowish dead tissue that collects on the bed of a wound, sore, or ulcer.
   - Simple: Soft, yellowish dead tissue that forms in a wound or sore.
   - _Removing the slough helps an ulcer heal from the base._
   - _The dressing softens the slough so that it can be lifted away._
6. The skin that a snake or other reptile has shed.
   - Simple: The old skin that a snake or other reptile leaves behind.
   - _A complete slough, eyes and all, lay coiled beside the rock._
   - _Biologists can identify a species from the scale pattern on its slough._
7. A small, often alkaline pond, many of which lie in potholes left by glaciers. *(dialectal, Canadian Prairies)* (pronounced: say "SLOW" /slaʊ/)
   - Simple: A small pond, often with alkaline water, many of them made by glaciers long ago.
   - _Every quarter section seemed to have its own slough, ringed with cattails and loud with ducks._
   - _Prairie sloughs are vital nesting grounds for waterfowl._

## Origin

**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.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/slough (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).