slough

C2+ Topic:The Human Body

verb /slʌf/ See IPA manual

Meanings

1

noun
a low area of wet, muddy ground

The wagon sank to its axles in the muddy slough.
2

verb
to shed a layer of skin or other outer covering

US /slʌf/ UK /slʌf/

Snakes slough their old skin as they grow.

Verb forms

Verb forms are not available for this word yet.

Multiword verbs with slough

slough off Phrasal verb C2+

to shed or separate an outer layer of dead tissue

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · a low area of wet, muddy... swamp marsh bog

More mire quagmire shed cast

Word family

Related forms sloughy

Appears in

Phrases (1)

See all

slough off
to shed or separate an outer layer of dead tissue

Verb + adverb

Simplified etymology

Two distinct words are spelled slough. The word for a swamp comes from Old English slōh. The word for skin shed by a snake entered in Middle English with the general meaning “skin” and may be related to Low German sluwe, “husk, peel.”

Etymology

The 'swamp' sense is from Old English slōh ('mire, slough'); the verb 'shed skin' and noun 'shed skin' (rhyming with 'rough') are from Middle English slughe ('snake's skin'), of uncertain origin.

slōh Old English

View etymology graph ->

Topics

The Human Body

External links

# slough

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** noun, verb
**IPA (US):** /slaʊ/
**IPA (UK):** /slaʊ/

## Meanings
1. a low area of wet, muddy ground
2. to shed a layer of skin or other outer covering

## Examples
- The wagon sank to its axles in the muddy slough.
- Snakes slough their old skin as they grow.

## Synonyms
- bog
- swamp
- mire
- marsh
- quagmire
- shed
- cast

## Related Forms
- sloughy

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: slōh

## Etymology
The 'swamp' sense is from Old English slōh ('mire, slough'); the verb 'shed skin' and noun 'shed skin' (rhyming with 'rough') are from Middle English slughe ('snake's skin'), of uncertain origin.

## AI Etymology
Slough has this etymological history: The 'swamp' sense is from Old English slōh ('mire, slough'); the verb 'shed skin' and noun 'shed skin' (rhyming with 'rough') are from Middle English slughe ('snake's skin'), of uncertain origin. The historical chain includes Old English slōh. The quoted older senses, "swamp", "mire, slough", "shed skin", "rough", and "snake", supply the semantic anchors for slough. In present English it is used as a noun, "a swamp or muddy hollow, or to shed dead skin or outer layer". Related English forms include sloughy. The result is a noun and verb whose etymology preserves both the older form and the later English specialization.

## Topics
- The Human Body

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