slough

Plural: sloughs

Noun

• necrotic tissue; a mortified or gangrenous part or mass
• a hollow filled with mud
• a stagnant swamp (especially as part of a bayou)
• any outer covering that can be shed or cast off (such as the cast-off skin of a snake)
• The skin shed by a snake or other reptile.
• Dead skin on a sore or ulcer.
• A muddy or marshy area.
• 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.
• A secondary channel of a river delta, usually flushed by the tide.
• A state of depression.
• A small pond, often alkaline, many but not all formed by glacial potholes.

Verb

Verb Forms: sloughed, sloughing, sloughs

• To shed or cast off an outer layer, like skin or dead cells.
• cast off hair, skin, horn, or feathers
• To shed skin or outer layers.
• To slide off or flake off, as an outer layer, such as skin, might do.
• To discard.
• To commit truancy, be absent from school without permission.

Examples

• East sloughed a heart.
• John is in a slough.
• Potholes or sloughs formed by a glacier’s retreat from the central plains of North America, are now known to be some of the world’s most productive ecosystems.
• Snakes slough their skin periodically.
• Sometimes, a player must slough off their high-value letters to get better ones in Words With Friends.
• That is the slough of a rattler; we must be careful.
• The Sacramento River Delta contains dozens of sloughs that are often used for water-skiing and fishing.
• This is the slough that came off of his skin after the burn.
• This skin is being sloughed.
• We paddled under a canopy of trees through the slough.

Synonyms

exuviate, gangrene, molt, moult, shed, sphacelus, ditch

Anagrams of slough