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slough

Pronunciation: /slʌf/

The English word “slough” has 11 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. The skin shed by a snake or other reptile.
  2. Dead skin on a sore or ulcer.
  3. A marshy or muddy area.
  4. 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.
  5. A secondary channel of a river delta, usually flushed by the tide.
  6. A state of depression.
  7. A small pond, often alkaline, many but not all formed by glacial potholes.

verb

  1. To shed skin or outer layers.
  2. To slide off or flake off, as an outer layer, such as skin, might do.
  3. To discard.
  4. To commit truancy, be absent from school without permission.

Etymology

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”).

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.