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Slough   /sləf/   Listen
noun
Slough  n.  
1.
A place of deep mud or mire; a hole full of mire. "He's here stuck in a slough."
2.
A wet place; a swale; a side channel or inlet from a river. Note: (In this sense local or provincial; also spelt sloo, and slue.)
Slough grass (Bot.), a name in the Mississippi valley for grasses of the genus Muhlenbergia; called also drop seed, and nimble Will.



Slough  n.  
1.
The skin, commonly the cast-off skin, of a serpent or of some similar animal.
2.
(Med.) The dead mass separating from a foul sore; the dead part which separates from the living tissue in mortification.



verb
Slough  v. t.  To cast off; to discard as refuse. "New tint the plumage of the birds, And slough decay from grazing herds."



Slough  v. i.  (past & past part. sloughed; pres. part. sloughing)  (Med.) 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.



Slough  v.  obs. Imp. of Slee, to slay. Slew.



adjective
Slough  adj.  Slow. (Obs.)






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Slough" Quotes from Famous Books



... years or more; yet if there's roast pork on the table, and I say a word to put him off it, he's that hurt as never was. Why, I'm only too glad to see him enjoying his food if no harm comes of it; but it's dreary work seeing your husband in the Slough of Despond, especially when it's your business to drag him out again, and most especially when you particularly ...
— The Farringdons • Ellen Thorneycroft Fowler

... fifty pounds? Us, who wore bearskins in the burning tropics And marched bareheaded through the snows of Russia, Who trotted casually from Spain to Austria? Us who, to free our travel-weary legs, Like carrots from the slough of miry roads, Often with both hands had to lug them out? Us, who, not having jujubes for our coughs, Took day-long foot-baths in the freezing Danube? Who just had leisure when some officer Came riding up, and gayly cried "To arms! The enemy is on us! Drive him back!" To eat a slice ...
— L'Aiglon • Edmond Rostand

... glued to one of the eddies, its limbs feebly quivering; a fish arises, and it is gone. Lower down the stream, I can see over a knoll the green and damp turf roofs of four or five hovels, built at the edge of a morass, which is trodden by the cattle into a black Slough of Despond at their doors, and traversed by a few ill-set stepping stones, with here and there a flat slab on the tops, where they have sunk out of sight;—and at the turn of the brook I see a man fishing, with a boy and a dog—a picturesque ...
— Frondes Agrestes - Readings in 'Modern Painters' • John Ruskin

... utter lack of interest amuses me. I will be honest with the reader, though, and any Master Pliable is free to forsake me at this point; for I cannot promise to be really livelier than my walk. There is a Slough of Despond in full view, and not a Delectable Mountain to be seen, unless you choose so to call the high lands about Waltham, which we shall behold dark blue against the western sky presently. As I sally forth upon Benicia Street, the whole suburb of Charlesbridge stretches about ...
— Suburban Sketches • W.D. Howells

... s'pose. Perhaps you've noticed that those who trust a good deal are usually poor. It's all right, Mr. Ellery; you go and take your walk. And I'll walk into that pantry closet. It'll be a good deal like walkin' into the Slough of Despond, but Christian came out on the other side and I guess likely I will, if the supply of soapsuds ...
— Keziah Coffin • Joseph C. Lincoln


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