Word Study
slough
CIDE DICTIONARY
slough, a.
Slow. Chaucer. [1913 Webster]
slough, n. [OE. slogh, slough, AS. sl a hollow place; cf. MHG. sl an abyss, gullet, G. schlucken to swallow; also Gael. & Ir. sloc a pit, pool. ditch, Ir. slug to swallow. Gr. to hiccough, to sob.].
- A place of deep mud or mire; a hole full of mire. Chaucer. [1913 Webster]"He's here stuck in a slough." [1913 Webster]
- A wet place; a swale; a side channel or inlet from a river."[In this sense local or provincial; also spelt
sloo , andslue .]" [1913 Webster]
slough, imp.
slough, n. [OE. slugh, slouh; cf. MHG. slch the skin of a serpent, G. schlauch a skin, a leather bag or bottle.].
- The skin, commonly the cast-off skin, of a serpent or of some similar animal. [1913 Webster]
- The dead mass separating from a foul sore; the dead part which separates from the living tissue in mortification. [1913 Webster]
slough, v. i.
To form a slough; to separate in the form of dead matter from the living tissues; -- often used with off, or away; as, a sloughing ulcer; the dead tissues slough off slowly. [1913 Webster]
slough, v. t.
To cast off; to discard as refuse. [1913 Webster]
"New tint the plumage of the birds,
And slough decay from grazing herds." [1913 Webster]
And slough decay from grazing herds." [1913 Webster]
OXFORD DICTIONARY
slough, n. a swamp; a miry place; a quagmire.
Idiom
Slough of Despond a state of hopeless depression (with ref. to Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress).
Derivative
sloughy adj.
slough, n. & v.
--n.
1 a part that an animal casts or moults, esp. a snake's cast skin.
2 dead tissue that drops off from living flesh etc.
3 a habit etc. that has been abandoned.
--v.
1 tr. cast off as a slough.
2 intr. (often foll. by off) drop off as a slough.
3 intr. cast off a slough.
4 intr. (often foll. by away, down) (of soil, rock, etc.) collapse or slide into a hole or depression.
--n.
1 a part that an animal casts or moults, esp. a snake's cast skin.
2 dead tissue that drops off from living flesh etc.
3 a habit etc. that has been abandoned.
--v.
1 tr. cast off as a slough.
2 intr. (often foll. by off) drop off as a slough.
3 intr. cast off a slough.
4 intr. (often foll. by away, down) (of soil, rock, etc.) collapse or slide into a hole or depression.
Derivative
sloughy adj.
Etymology
ME, perh. rel. to LG slu(we) husk
THESAURUS
slough
abandon, baygall, bilge, bilgewater, bind, bog, bottom, bottomland, bottoms, buffalo wallow, caries, carrion, case, cashier, cast, cast aside, cast away, cast off, chuck, chuckhole, clutch, complication, crunch, decay, decomposition, deep-six, desquamation, discard, dishwater, dispose of, ditch, ditchwater, dry gangrene, dry rot, dump, eighty-six, eliminate, embarrassing position, embarrassment, everglade, exuviae, exuviate, fen, fenland, fine how-do-you-do, foulness, gangrene, garbage, gas gangrene, get quit of, get rid of, get shut of, give away, glade, hell to pay, hobble, hog wallow, holm, hot water, how-do-you-do, husk, imbroglio, jam, jettison, jilt, junk, loblolly, marais, marish, marsh, marshland, meadow, mere, mess, mire, mix, moist gangrene, molt, moor, moorland, morass, mortification, moss, muckhole, mud, mud flat, mud puddle, mudhole, necrosis, necrotic tissue, noma, offal, offscourings, parlous straits, part with, pass, peat bog, pickle, pinch, plight, pod, predicament, pretty pass, pretty pickle, pretty predicament, puddle, putrefaction, putrescence, putridity, putridness, quagmire, quicksand, rancidity, rancidness, rankness, refuse, reject, remove, riffraff, rot, rottenness, salt marsh, scrap, scrape, scum, scurf, sewage, sewerage, shed, shell, shuck, skin, slip, slob land, slop, slops, sough, sphacelation, sphacelus, spoilage, spot, squeeze, stew, sticky wicket, strait, straits, sump, swale, swamp, swampland, swill, taiga, throw away, throw off, throw out, throw over, throw overboard, tight spot, tight squeeze, tightrope, tooth decay, toss overboard, tricky spot, unholy mess, wallow, washROGET THESAURUS
slough
Uncleanness
N uncleanness, impurity, immundity, immundicity, impurity, defilement, contamination, defoedation, soilure, soiliness, abomination, leaven, taint, tainture, fetor, decay, putrescence, putrefaction, corruption, mold, must, mildew, dry rot, mucor, rubigo, slovenry, slovenliness, squalor, dowdy, drab, slut, malkin, slattern, sloven, slammerkin, slammock, slummock, scrub, draggle-tail, mudlark, dust-man, sweep, beast, dirt, filth, soil, slop, dust, cobweb, flue, smoke, soot, smudge, smut, grit, grime, raff, sossle, sozzle, sordes, dregs, grounds, lees, argol, sediment, settlement heeltap, dross, drossiness, mother, precipitate, scoriae, ashes, cinders, recrement, slag, scum, froth, hogwash, ditchwater, dishwater, bilgewater, rinsings, cheeseparings, sweepings, offscourings, outscourings, off scum, caput mortuum, residuum, sprue, fecula, clinker, draff, scurf, scurfiness, exuviae, morphea, fur, furfur, dandruff, tartar, riffraff, vermin, louse, flea, bug, chinch, mud, mire, quagmire, alluvium, silt, sludge, slime, slush, slosh, sposh, spawn, offal, gurry, lientery, garbage, carrion, excreta, slough, peccant humor, pus, matter, suppuration, lienteria, faeces, feces, excrement, ordure, dung, crap, shit, sewage, sewerage, muck, coprolite, guano, manure, compost, dunghill, colluvies, mixen, midden, bog, laystall, sink, privy, jakes, toilet, john, head, cess, cesspool, sump, sough, cloaca, latrines, drain, sewer, common sewer, Cloacina, dust hole, sty, pigsty, lair, den, Augean stable, sink of corruption, slum, rookery, dirty, filthy, grimy, unclean, impure, soiled, not to be handled with kid gloves, dusty, snuffy, smutty, sooty, smoky, thick, turbid, dreggy, slimy, mussy, slovenly, untidy, messy, uncleanly, unkempt, sluttish, dowdy, draggle-tailed, uncombed, unscoured, unswept, unwiped, unwashed, unstrained, unpurified, squalid, lutose, slammocky, slummocky, sozzly, nasty, coarse, foul, offensive, abominable, beastly, reeky, reechy, fetid, decayed, moldy, musty, mildewed, rusty, moth-eaten, mucid, rancid, weak, bad, gone bad, etercoral, lentiginous, touched, fusty, effete, reasty, rotten, corrupt, tainted, high, flyblown, maggoty, putrid, putrefactive, putrescent, putrefied, saprogenic, saprogenous, purulent, carious, peccant, fecal, feculent, stercoraceous, excrementitious, scurfy, scurvy, impetiginous, gory, bloody, rotting, rotten as a pear, rotten as cheese, crapulous, gross, fimetarious, fimicolous, they that touch pitch will be defiled.Difficulty
N difficulty, hardness, impracticability, tough work, hard work, uphill work, hard task, Herculean task, Augean task, task of Sisyphus, Sisyphean labor, tough job, teaser, rasper, dead lift, dilemma, embarrassment, deadlock, perplexity, intricacy, entanglement, complexity, cross fire, awkwardness, delicacy, ticklish card to play, knot, Gordian knot, dignus vindice nodus, net, meshes, maze, coil, crooked path, involvement, nice point, delicate point, subtle point, knotty point, vexed question, vexata quaestio, poser, puzzle, paradox, hard nut to crack, nut to crack, bone to pick, crux, pons asinorum, where the shoe pinches, nonplus, quandary, strait, pass, pinch, pretty pass, stress, brunt, critical situation, crisis, trial, rub, emergency, exigency, scramble, scrape, hobble, slough, quagmire, hot water, hornet's nest, sea of troubles, peck of troubles, pretty kettle of fish, pickle, stew, imbroglio, mess, ado, false position, set fast, stand, standstill, deadlock, dead set, fix, horns of a dilemma, cul de sac, hitch, stumbling block, crab, curmudgeon, difficult, not easy, hard, tough, troublesome, toilsome, irksome, operose, laborious, onerous, arduous, Herculean, formidable, sooner said than done, more easily said than done, easier said than done, difficult to deal with, hard to deal with, ill-conditioned, crabbed, crabby, not to be handled with kid gloves, not made with rose water, awkward, unwieldy, unmanageable, intractable, stubborn, perverse, refractory, plaguy, trying, thorny, rugged, knotted, knotty, invious, pathless, trackless, labyrinthine, intricate, complicated, impracticable, not feasible, desperate, embarrassing, perplexing, delicate, ticklish, critical, beset with difficulties, full of difficulties, surrounded by difficulties, entangled by difficulties, encompassed with difficulties, under a difficulty, in a box, in difficulty, in hot water, in the suds, in a cleft stick, in a fix, in the wrong box, in a scrape, in deep water, in a fine pickle, in extremis, between two stools, between Scylla and Charybdis, surrounded by shoals, surrounded by breakers, surrounded by quicksands, at cross purposes, not out of the wood, reduced to straits, hard pressed, sorely pressed, run hard, pinched, put to it, straitened, hard up, hard put to it, hard set, put to one's shifts, puzzled, at a loss, at the end of one's tether, at the end of one's rope, at one's wit's end, at a nonplus, at a standstill, graveled, nonplused, nonplussed, stranded, aground, stuck fast, set fast, up a tree, at bay, aux abois, driven into a corner, driven from pillar to post, driven to extremity, driven to one's wit's end, driven to the wall, au bout de son Latin, out of one's depth, thrown out, accomplished with difficulty, hard-fought, hard-earned, with difficulty, with much ado, barely, hardly, uphill, against the stream, against the grain, d rebours, invita Minerva, in the teeth of, at a pinch, upon a pinch, at long odds, against long odds, ay there's the rub, hic labor hoc opus, things are come to a pretty pass, ab inconvenienti, ad astra per aspera, acun chemin de fleurs ne conduit a la gloire.Marsh
N marsh, swamp, morass, marish, moss, fen, bog, quagmire, slough, sump, wash, mud, squash, slush, baygall, cienaga, jhil, vlei, marsh, marshy, swampy, boggy, plashy, poachy, quaggy, soft, muddy, sloppy, squashy, paludal, moorish, moory, fenny.For further exploring for "slough" in Webster Dictionary Online
