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Slough vs Sloughing - What's the difference?

slough | sloughing |

As nouns the difference between slough and sloughing

is that slough is the skin shed by a snake or other reptile while sloughing is something sloughed off.

As verbs the difference between slough and sloughing

is that slough is to shed (skin) while sloughing is present participle of lang=en.

As a proper noun Slough

is a town in east Berkshire, and formerly in Buckinghamshire, close to Heathrow Airport.

slough

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl), akin to Middle High German ).

Alternative forms

* sluff

Noun

(en noun)
  • The skin shed by a snake or other reptile.
    • That is the slough of a rattler; we must be careful.
  • Dead skin on a sore or ulcer.
    • This is the slough that came off of his skin after the burn.

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To shed (skin).
    • This skin is being sloughed .
  • To slide off (like a layer of skin).
    • A week after he was burned, a layer of skin on his arm sloughed off.
  • * 2013 , Casey Watson, Mummy’s Little Helper: The heartrending true story of a young girl :
    • The mud sloughed off her palms easily
  • (card games) To discard.
    • East sloughed a heart.
    Derived terms
    * slough off

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (British) A muddy or marshy area.
  • * 1883' "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 . — ''
  • (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.
    • We paddled under a canopy of trees through the slough .
  • (Western United States) A secondary channel of a river delta, usually flushed by the tide.
    • The contains dozens of sloughs that are often used for water-skiing and fishing.
  • A state of depression.
    • John is in a slough .
  • (Canadian Prairies) A small pond, often alkaline, many but not all are formed by glacial potholes.
    • 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.
    Derived terms
    * sloughy * Slough of Despond

    Anagrams

    * English heteronyms

    sloughing

    English

    Verb

    (head)

    • Noun

    (en noun)
  • Something sloughed off.
  • * 2012 , Frank Spellman, Revonna Bieber, Environmental Health and Science Desk Reference (page 831)
    • As the zoogleal slime reenters the wastewater, excess solids and waste products are stripped off the media as sloughings . These sloughings are transported with the wastewater flow to a settling tank for removal.
  • (zoology) The act of casting off the skin or shell; ecdysis.
  • * 1995 , Bulletin of the Florida Museum of Natural History: Volume 38
    • If all sloughings were successfully recorded, which is not certain since rattle segments were not color-coded during this study, the interval between events averaged 246.1 days (1.5 sloughings per snake per year).