Definition of "slough"

slough¹

/slʌf/

noun
countable and uncountable, plural sloughs
1. The skin shed by a snake or other reptile.
  Quotations
  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.
  1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887
2. Dead skin on a sore or ulcer.
verb
third-person singular simple present sloughs, present participle sloughing, simple past and past participle sloughed
1. (transitive) To shed skin or outer layers.
2. (intransitive) To slide off or flake off, as an outer layer, such as skin, might do.
  Quotations
  The mud sloughed off her palms easily […]
  2013, Casey Watson, Mummy’s Little Helper: The heartrending true story of a young girl
  The adit penetrated the vug ... and at this level ... it was filled with material that had ... sloughed off the walls.
  1944 United States. Bureau of Mines · War Minerals Report 386. Google books
  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.
  2013 April 13, Michael Mello, “Avalanche forecaster killed in Utah avalanche”, in Los Angeles Times
3. (transitive, card games) To discard.
4. (intransitive, slang, Western US) To commit truancy, be absent from school without permission.

slough²

/slaʊ/

noun
plural sloughs
1. (Britain) A muddy or marshy area.
  Quotations
  "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.
  1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, London, Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883
2. (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.
3. (Western US) A secondary channel of a river delta, usually flushed by the tide.
4. A state of depression.
5. (Canadian Prairies) A small pond, often alkaline, many but not all formed by glacial potholes.

Definition of "slough"

slough1

noun

Quotations

verb

Quotations

slough2

noun

Quotations

slough¹

slough²