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Slough vs Trough - What's the difference?

slough | trough |

As nouns the difference between slough and trough

is that slough is the skin shed by a snake or other reptile while trough is a long, narrow container, open on top, for feeding or watering animals.

As verbs the difference between slough and trough

is that slough is to shed (skin) while trough is to eat in a vulgar style, as if eating from a trough.

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

    trough

    English

    (wikipedia trough)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A long, narrow container, open on top, for feeding or watering animals.
  • One of Hank's chores was to slop the pigs' trough each morning and evening.
  • Any similarly shaped container.
  • # (Australia, New Zealand) A rectangular container used for washing or rinsing clothes.
  • Ernest threw his paint brushes into a kind of trough he had fashioned from sheet metal that he kept in the sink.
  • A short, narrow canal designed to hold water until it drains or evaporates.
  • There was a small trough that the sump pump emptied into; it was filled with mosquito larvae.
  • (Canada) A gutter under the eaves of a building; an eaves trough.
  • The troughs were filled with leaves and needed clearing.
  • (agriculture, Australia, New Zealand) A channel for conveying water or other farm liquids (such as milk) from place to place by gravity; any ‘U’ or ‘V’ cross-sectioned irrigation channel.
  • A long, narrow depression between waves or ridges; the low portion of a wave cycle.
  • The buoy bobbed between the crests and troughs of the waves moving across the bay.
    The neurologist pointed to a troubling trough in the pattern of his brain-waves.
  • (meteorology) A linear atmospheric depression associated with a weather front.
  • Verb

    (en verb)
  • To eat in a vulgar style, as if eating from a trough
  • he troughed his way through 3 meat pies.

    References

    * Oxford English Dictionary Online

    See also

    * crib * ditch * trench