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Swamp vs Slough - What's the difference?

swamp | slough |

As nouns the difference between swamp and slough

is that swamp is a piece of wet, spongy land; low ground saturated with water; soft, wet ground which may have a growth of certain kinds of trees, but is unfit for agricultural or pastoral purposes while slough is the skin shed by a snake or other reptile.

As verbs the difference between swamp and slough

is that swamp is to drench or fill with water while slough is to shed (skin).

As a proper noun Slough is

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

swamp

English

Alternative forms

* (l) (obsolete)

Noun

(wikipedia swamp) (en noun)
  • A piece of wet, spongy land; low ground saturated with water; soft, wet ground which may have a growth of certain kinds of trees, but is unfit for agricultural or pastoral purposes.
  • A type of wetland that stretches for vast distances, and is home to many creatures who have adapted specifically to that environment.

    • Derived terms

    * swamp gum * swampland * swamp wallaby * swampy

    See also

    * bog * marsh * moor

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To drench or fill with water.
    • The boat was swamped in the storm.
  • To overwhelm; to make too busy, or overrun the capacity of.
    • I have been swamped with paperwork ever since they started using the new system.
  • * 2006 , New York Times,
    • Mr. Spitzer’s defeat of his Democratic opponent ... ended a primary season in which Hillary Rodham Clinton swamped an antiwar challenger for renomination to the Senate.
  • (figurative) To plunge into difficulties and perils; to overwhelm; to ruin; to wreck.
  • * J. R. Green
    • The Whig majority of the house of Lords was swamped by the creation of twelve Tory peers.
  • * W. Hamilton
    • Having swamped himself in following the ignis fatuus of a theory

    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