▪ I. slough, n.1
(slaʊ)
Forms: α. 1, 3–4 sloh, 1 sloᵹ(h, 5 slogh, 4–5 sloghe (5 sloghte); 4 slowh, slowȝ (5 -e); 4 slouhe, slouȝ(e, 4– slough (6 -e), 5 sclough, 9 Sc. slouch. β. 4, 6–7 slowe, 4–8 slow. γ. 1, 3, 5 slo, 4–5, 9 dial. sloo. (See also slew n.1)
[OE. slóh (slóᵹ, sló), of doubtful origin; perhaps ultimately related to slonk.]
1. a. A piece of soft, miry, or muddy ground; esp. a place or hole in a road or way filled with wet mud or mire and impassable by heavy vehicles, horses, etc.
| α c 900 tr. Baeda's Hist. v. vi. (1890) 400 Þæt hors..sume sloh on þæm wæᵹe mid swiðþran ræse oferhleop. a 1023 Wulfstan Hom. xlvi. (1883) 239 Ðeah se man nime ænne stan and lecᵹe on ful sloh. 1390 Gower Conf. I. 142 Of the welles brinke Or of the pet or of the slowh. c 1400 Destr. Troy 13547 Wanto the lond, Thurgh the slicche and the slyme in þis slogh feble. a 1425 Cursor M. 15826 (Trin.), Forþ þei ihesus drowȝe And lugged him.. ouer hilles, dale, & slowȝe. 1483 Cath. Angl. 345/1 A Sloghte, tesquum, vel tesqua, volutabrum. c 1500 God Speed the Plough 14 By downe and by dale and many a slough. 1577 Harrison Descr. Brit. xix. in Holinshed I. 114 Manie a slough [would] proue hard ground that yet is deepe and hollow. 1670 Milton Hist. Eng. ii. Wks. 1851 V. 78 Many a time enclos'd in the midst of sloughs and quagmires. 1678 Bunyan Pilgr. i. 9 They drew near to a very Miry Slough... The name of the Slow was Dispond. 1732 Swift Corr. Wks. 1841 II. 682 Every meadow a slough, and every hill a mixture of rock, heath, and marsh. 1784 Cowper Task iii. 5 One who.., having long in miry ways been foil'd.., from slough to slough Plunging [etc.]. 1827 Scott Chron. Canongate iii, An old-fashioned road, which, preferring ascents to sloughs, was led in a straight line. 1869 Blackmore Lorna D. ii, The sloughs were exceedingly murky. |
| transf. 1856 Kane Arctic Expl. I. xvi. 187 And then piloted my dogs out of their slough. 1890 E. H. Barker Wayfaring in France 27 Sand sloughs into which they may step unawares. |
| β 13.. K. Alis. 6075 (W.), Into theo mores they heom drowe, To quede paththes, to quede slowe. c 1386 Chaucer Manciple's Prol. 64 (Hengwrt MS.), He hath also to do moore than ynow To kepen hym and his capil out of the Slow. 1537 Bury Wills (Camden) 132 Mendyng the fowle slowys betwene thys my howse and Reuyttes gate. 1642 Rogers Naaman 558 To lie as a beast in a slow. 1678 [see above]. 1710 Acc. Distemper Tom Whigg ii. 44 Breaking his Horse's Back as he plung'd into a Slow. |
| γ a 1000 in Birch Sax. Chartul. I. 530 Of þan slo to þan lytlan beorhe. Ibid. II. 41 In readan sloe. c 1250 [see b]. a 1300 Assump. Virg. 507 Cast we it in a foule sloo. c 1386 Chaucer Friar's T. 267 Now is my cart out of the sloo parde! c 1425 Castle Persev. 2242 in Macro Plays, Lete slynge hem in a fowle slo. 1426 Lydg. De Guil. Pilgr. 13597 By brookys and by sloos fowle, A-mong the clay they hym dyffoule. [1891 Hartland Gloss. s.v. Slough, A bye-road at H. is called Sloo Road, and an adjoining field Sloo Park.] |
b. fig. A state or condition (esp. of moral degradation) in which a person, etc., sinks or has sunk.
| c 1250 Owl & Night. 1394 Vor mony wymmon haueþ mysdo Þat aryst vp of þe slo. c 1340 Hampole Psalter xxix. 3 Wha sa gifis þaim til lustis of fleysse.., þai light in þe sloghe, and þai ere enmys of Jesu crist. 1415 Hoccleve Sir J. Oldcastle 105 Ryse vp, a manly knyght, out of the slow Of heresie. c 1425 Castle Persev. 2757 in Macro Plays, Þus hast þou gotyn, in synful slo, of þyne neygboris, be extorcyon. 1593 Queen Elizabeth Boeth. iv. pr. iii. 81 See you not in what a great slowe [L. cæno] wicked thinges be wrapt in. 1632 Star Chamber Cases (Camden) 105 For this man Carrier when he talks of religion he is in a slowe. 1742 Young Nt. Th. vi. 222 Ambition, av'rice; the two daemons these, Which goad thro' ev'ry slough our human herd. 1768–74 Tucker Lt. Nat. (1834) II. 149 To take the adventurous leaps of folly, or plunge into the sloughs of vice. 1823 Roscoe tr. Sismondi's Lit. Europe (1846) I. viii. 257 A disgusting slough swallows up those, who abandon themselves to choleric passions. 1850 H. Martineau Hist. Peace iv. ix. (1877) III. 35 The clergy sank into a deeper slough of popular hatred. 1888 H. Morten Hospital Life 22 It had..lifted her out of the miserable slough in which marriage had landed her. |
c. Slough of Despond, after Bunyan's use (see 1 a and despond n.).
| 1776 Twining in Country Clergyman of the 18th C. (1882) 31, I remember slumping all on a sudden into the slough of despond, and closing my letter in the dumps. 1818 Scott Hrt. Midl. i, The miry Slough of Despond, which yawns for insolvent debtors. 1839 F. A. Kemble Resid. Georgia (1863) 12 If one individual..were to raise himself out of such a slough of despond. 1884 Haweis My Musical Life I. 137 Musical criticism has been in the same Slough of Despond. |
2. The matter of which a slough is composed; soft mud or mire. ? Obs.
| a 1225 Leg. Kath. 1662 Euch strete..bute sloh & slec, eauer iliche sumerlich. 1393 Langl. P. Pl. C. xiii. 179 Bote yf þe sed þat sowen is in þe sloh sterue, Shal neuere spir springen vp. a 1425 Cursor M. 1964 (Trin.), Also ȝe ete of no flesshe elles þat in slouȝe & erþe dwelles. 1732 Swift Epist. Corr. Wks. 1841 II. 682 You can't ride half a mile..without being in slough to your saddle-skirts. 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. i. iv. (1862) II. 261 Covered over with weeds, slough, and all the filth of the sea. 1776 G. Semple Building in Water 71 A Hole, which was immediately filled up with Slough. |
3. A ditch, dike, or drain; also, a cart rut. ? Obs.
| 1532 G. Hervet Xenophon's Treat. Househ. (1768) 67 Thinke you than that we do not make the dyches and sloughes in the fieldes for a good cause? 1598 Florio, Carreggista, the rut or slough of a cart wheele. 1640 G. Abbott Job Paraph. 169 By his labour and skill he cuts out passages and sloughs in the hard stony rocks. 1685 Phil. Trans. XV. 956 In the Bog, observe which way the little Sloughs run; be sure to cut their drains across them. |
4. N. Amer. (sluː). = slew n.1 Also, a side channel of a river, or a natural channel that is only sporadically filled with water.
| 1714 Rep. Record Commissioners (Boston Registry Dept.) (1877) III. 217 Between his old house & the Slough or Small Bridge. a 1817 T. Dwight Trav. New Eng. etc. (1821) II. 142 The slough will be covered with a causey; and the marsh by draining be converted into a meadow. 1858 W. P. Blake Rep. Geol. Reconnaissance in California i. 10 There lay outstretched the broad and green Tulares—great swamps or lowlands overgrown with rushes and threaded by the sinuous channels and sloughs of the river. 1859 Brit. Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 17 Dec. 3/2 At Old Langley, the slough is entirely frozen up. 1874 J. W. Long Amer. Wild-fowl. viii. 128 Mallards breed in small numbers in the various swamps and sloughs of the Western country. 1888 Goode Amer. Fishes 109 Oftentimes the current cuts out a deep ‘slough’, or sluice, within reach of high water mark... It forms a space of smooth water between the outer and inner breakers. 1888 D. M. Gordon Mountain & Prairie 143 At the same time there are many sloughs, or ‘slews’ so-called, where part of the river flows by some devious and half-hidden course. 1891 C. Roberts Adrift Amer. 29, I went over head and ears into a slough, a long narrow stretch of water formed by a depression in the prairie. 1913 Thomas & Watt Improvement of Rivers (ed. 2) i. i. 30 In valleys with narrow bottom lands the result is a slough or drain close to the hills which returns the water to the main channel further down, one slough succeeding another along the valley. 1924 M. H. Mason Arctic Forests 225 There was an Indian toboggan trail on the long slough, past Jenny Island up to the eight-mile point. 1932 C. R. Longwell et al. Textbk. Geol. I. iii. 60 Most [short cuts]..are abandoned as the flood subsides and are left as sloughs, which are slowly undercut as the meander shifts downstream. 1939 W. Häntzschel in P. D. Trask Recent Marine Sediments iii. 202 The sloughs (Priele) on the tidal flats are comparable to rivers and brooks. Ibid., Where the range in tides in Jade Bay is as high as 3·6 meters, the sloughs are deeply incised. 1962 W. Stegner Wolf Willow i. i. 8 In deep sloughs tules have rooted, and every such pond is dignified with mating mallards. 1970 Leopold & Wolman in G. H. Dury Rivers & River Terraces vii. 199 Opposite the gravel island is a slough aligned with a grassed depression. Both features undoubtedly carry water during flood flow. 1974 P. Gzowski Bk. about this Country 20, I remember seeing a bunch of geese sitting in a little slough. 1976 Prof. Paper U.S. Geol. Survey No. 929. 150/2 The ecological model is designed to relate the wildlife in the Shark River Slough to the availability of food and water. |
5. attrib., as slough-cake, slough-water, etc. Also slough bass, a black bass of the genus Micropterus; slough grass, one of several coarse grasses of swampy ground, esp. a species of the genus Muhlenbergia; slough hay Canad., (hay made from) slough grass.
| 1877 C. Hallock Sportsman's Gaz. 276 Locally they are termed perch..*slough bass, etc. 1881 J. A. Henshall Bk. Black Bass 142 Slough Bass. 1888 Goode Amer. Fishes 56 ‘Marsh Bass,’..‘Slough Bass,’..are other names applied to one or both species [of black bass]. |
| 1869 Blackmore Lorna D. ii, The great blunderbuss..was choked with a dollop of *slough-cake. |
| 1860 Trans. Ill. Agric. Soc. IV. 488 Then [I] make a band of whatever material I have at hand, (*slough grass is preferable). 1880 Bessey Botany 455 Muhlenbergia glomerata and M. Mexicana constitute the ‘Fine Slough Grass’ of the Mississippi valley prairies. 1907 L. H. Bailey Cycl. Amer. Agric. II. 454/1 In wet and swampy places, slough-grass (Spartina) furnishes a supply of coarse hay. 1980 Country Life 13 Nov. 1819/3 The hay is made of wild slough grass. |
| 1934 G. Bettany Valley of Lost Gold 264 In the tall *slough hay beside them orange lilies raised their heads waist high. 1948 T. Onraet Sixty Below 135, I have often seen them kneeling on their forelegs to feed in comfort on short willows and slough hay. 1955 Sentinel-Courier (Pilot Mound, Manitoba) 31 Mar. 4/1 (Advt.), For sale—Baled slough hay, wire tied. 1968 S. E. Roberts Of Us & Oxen ii. 14 This ‘slough hay’ is said to be less nutritious than the ‘upland hay’ cut from buffalo grass. |
| 1874 J. W. Long Amer. Wild-fowl. ix. 150 Lager-beer..is much better to drink than *slough-water. |
▪ II. slough, n.2
(slʌf)
Forms: 4 slohu, slouh, 5 sloȝ, 4, 7 slow; 4–5 slughe, 4 slught, 5, 7 slugh; 5 slouȝe, 6–7 sloughe, 6 slougth, 6– slough, 8 sluf, 9 dial. sluff; Sc. 6 slouch(t, slowch, sluich, 9 sloch.
[ME. type sloh, sloȝ, of uncertain origin, perh. related to LG. sluwe, slu husk, peel, shell.]
1. The outer or scarf skin periodically cast or shed by a snake, adder, or similar reptile; also generally, the skin of a serpent, eel, etc.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 745 Þis nedder forth þat he ne blan Bot in hijs slught [v.rr. slohu, slouȝe] was self satan. a 1400–50 Alexander 5085 Fellis of fischis..with lions on lyue & lamprays sloȝis. 1483 Cath. Angl. 345/2 Slughes of eddyrs. 1513 Douglas æneid ii. viii. 60 Lyke to the eddir..[that has] Now slippit hir sloucht with schyning skyn new brerd. 1593 Shakes. 2 Hen. VI, iii. i. 229 As the Snake, roll'd in a flowring Banke, With shining checker'd slough. 1608 Topsell Serpents (1653) 810 The slow of the viper cureth the ring-worm. 1681 Grew Musæum i. iii. 49 The Slough of an English Viper. 1713 Derham Physico-Theol. ix. i. 438 Although he missed seeing the Serpents Yet he saw great numbers of their Exuviæ, or Slufs. 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. IV. 99 If the old slough be then viewed, every scale will be distinctly seen. 1851 Carpenter Man. Phys. (ed. 2) 138 The continuity is well seen in the cast skin or slough of the Snake. 1897 G. C. Bateman Vivarium 182 A slough when perfect is an exact copy of the exterior of the Snake from which it came. |
b. The skin of a caterpillar, locust, etc. cast in the course of transformation, as from the nymphal to the imago stage.
| 1681 Grew Musæum i. vii. iii. 176 A very large Aurelia and Slough of a Silk-Worme. 1818 Kirby & Sp. Introd. Entom. xvi. (ed. 2) II. 16 The moisture that remained upon them [i.e. locusts] after casting their sloughs. |
c. fig. A feature, quality, etc. which is thrown off.
| 1583 Golding Calvin on Deut. cxxi. 744 Vnlesse she..haue put her old bringing vp quite out of her minde, yea and euen cast her slough as they say. 1602 Marston Ant. & Mel. i. Wks. 1856 I. 9 Can man by no meanes creepe out of himselfe, And leave the slough of viperous griefe behinde? 1774 Burke Sp. Amer. Taxation Wks. I. 175 Are we to give them..the slough of slavery, which we are not able to work off, to serve them for their freedom? 1797 Godwin Enquirer i. xiv. 121 He casts the slough of sedentary confinement. 1818 Hallam Mid. Ages (1872) I. 131 The barbarians..had early cast off the slough of their rude manners. 1868 Tennyson Lucretius 177 The mountain there has cast his cloudy slough. |
d. Apparel, clothing.
| 1808 Scott Marm. vi. vii, For now that sable slough is shed,..I scarcely know me in the glass. 1820 ― Monast. xviii, I did but wait to cast my riding slough. 1821 ― Kenilw. xxx, While those..get rid of their slough, and doff their riding-suits. |
2. A skin, caul, or membrane, enclosing or covering the body or some part of it.
| 13.. Hampole's Pr. Consc. 520 Bot a rym [v.rr. slow, slouh] þat es ful wlatsome,..Þat es noght bot a blody skyn Þat he [man] byfor was lapped in. a 1400–50 Alexander 4456 Þus make ȝe vessels in vayne to ȝoure foule corses,..Þat ilk slymand slugh. c 1460 Towneley Myst. xiii. 385, I was flayd with a swevyn, My hart out of sloghe. 1486 Bk. St. Albans, Hunting f iij b, Than shall ye slyt the slough ther as the hert lith. 1599 Jas. I Dæmonol. 125 As to their [werwolves] having and hiding of their hard and schelly sluiches. 1599 Rollock Serm. Wks. 1849 I. 385 Na creature..can tak aff the slouch of thy hart to let thee see. |
b. An enclosing or covering layer, coat, or sheath of some kind.
| 1610 Holland Camden's Brit. 556 By reason that under the upper crust of the earth there is limestone which supplyeth a batling fruitfull slugh, or humour. 1610 Fletcher Faithf. Sheph. iii. i, No slough of falling Star did ever hit Upon this bank. ? c 1730 Ramsay Horace to Virgil 12 With heart hool'd in three sloughs of brass. |
c. dial. The outer skin of certain fruits; a husk.
| c 1660 in Select Biogr. (Wodrow Soc.) I. 265 Such a crosse is mine, and the sweet kirnell of the blessing under the sour slough that is without. 1691 Ray N.C. Words (ed. 2) 65 A Slough, a Husk; it is pronounced sluffe. 1855 [Robinson] Whitby Gloss., Sluffs, the skins of all such fruit as gooseberries and currants are called sluffs or sloughs. 1869– in dial. glossaries (Yks., Lancs., Linc.); also in Sc. use. |
3. Path. A layer or mass of dead tissue or flesh formed on the surface of a wound, sore, or inflammation; a sphacelus.
| 1513 Douglas æneid ii. x. 83 The clud..That on ȝour mortale ene..Lyke to ane wattery slowch standis dyme about. 1612 Woodall Surgeon's Mate Wks. (1653) 409 The first eskers or Cadaverous sloughes being removed. 1676 Wiseman Surg. Treat. i. xxi. 98 The matter of the Humour..may be arsenical, as appears by the Sloughs we sometimes find made in a night. 1797 Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3) XVIII. 97/2 Gun shot wounds are commonly covered from the beginning with deep sloughs. 1835–6 Todd's Cycl. Anat. I. 61/2 The inflammation..producing..sloughs of the adipose tissue. 1877 F. T. Roberts Handbk. Med. (ed. 3) I. 49 A slough is formed, which becomes isolated from the living textures and undergoes a process of separation. |
| fig. 1842 Tennyson St. Sim. Styl. 2 From scalp to sole one slough and crust of sin. |
| Comb. 1857 Ld. Dufferin Let. High Lat. 116 Crumpled shreds and shards of slough-like incrustations. 1897 Allbutt's Syst. Med. II. 488 The discharge appears so to cling to the sore surface as to form a thick slough-like yellow pellicle. |
▪ III. † slough, n.3 Obs.—1
(See quot.)
| 1647 J. Cleveland Poems, King's Disguise 33 The false scabberd of a Princes tough Metall, and three-pil'd darknesse, like the slough Of an imprisoned flame. [Note.] A damp, in Cole-pits usuall. |
▪ IV. slough, n.4
(slʌf)
Also sluff.
[app. f. slough v.2]
(See quots.)
| 1838 Civil Eng. & Arch. Jrnl. I. 144/2 Preventing those sloughs, or slipping at the foot of the materials, which may be observed on most large embankments. 1839 Murchison Silurian Syst. i. xxix. 376 The cliff vein..terminates in what the miners here [Pembroke] call a ‘slough’, i.e., it is bent suddenly downwards, accompanied on each side by the usual measures. 1908 Daily Chron. 16 Dec. 1/2 Two seconds afterwards the sluff came down in hundreds of tons. |
▪ V. slough, n.5
(slaʊ)
Also 9 sloo, sloe.
[Corresponds to Norw. slo, Icel. sló (whence the Shetland form sloe), but the currency of the word in southwestern dialect is remarkable.]
(See quots.)
| 1721 Bailey, Slough,..the spungy or porous Substance in the Inside of the Horns of Oxen or Cows. 1844 Barnes Poems Rural Life Gloss., Sloo of a horn, the inner bony prominence from the skull, or quick part of a cow's horn, which bleeds when broken. 1883 R. Haldane Workshop Rec. Ser. ii. 300/2 Dry materials:..Horn ‘sloughs’ (the pith or core of horns). 1890 in Gloucester Gloss. 142. |
▪ VI. slough, v.1
(slaʊ)
[f. slough n.1]
a. trans. In passive: To be swallowed (up) in a slough.
| 1861 in Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) (1911) 16 Apr. 1/6 Several of the wagons while conveying passengers and freight from the steamer on Sunday night became sloughed and the passengers were compelled to ‘foot it’ to town. 1904 E. A. Ormerod Econ. Entomologist v. 38 Another time somebody..got nearly sloughed up in one of the great marsh ditches. |
b. slang. To imprison, to lock (up). Usu. in passive.
| 1848 Ladies' Repository Oct. 317/1 Slough, to lock. 1894 ‘J. Flynt’ in Century Mag. Feb. 518/2 I've boozed around this town..for seven years, and I've not been sloughed up yet. 1926 J. Black You can't Win vii. 87 They'll..haul us over to Martinez..an' slough us in the county jail. 1935 A. J. Pollock Underworld Speaks 108/2 Sloughed, arrested. |
▪ VII. slough, v.2
(slʌf)
[f. slough n.2]
1. a. intr. Of diseased skin, tissue, etc.: To come away or off, to be shed, as a slough.
| 1720 Quincy tr. Hodges' Loimologia 138 Those which went no further than the skin, would oftentimes slough off. 1787 Med. Comm. II. 160 A large portion of the integuments..sloughed away. 1813 J. Thomson Lect. Inflamm. 269 The injured part of the artery sloughed off with the ligature. 1847 W. C. L. Martin Ox 160/2 The diseased part..sloughs away, and new and healthy skin is reproduced. |
| transf. and fig. 1857 Gosse Omphalos vii. 131 Every one of these scars indicates where a leaf has grown..and whence, after death and decay, it at length sloughed away. 1886 Boston Jrnl. 7 Aug. 1/9 The situation improved up to the time the eight-hour agitation began, when trade sloughed off and became dull. |
b. To become covered or encrusted with a slough; to form or develop necrosed tissue.
| 1787 Med. Comm. II. 160 It was evident that some part of the urethra had also sloughed. 1804 Abernethy Surg. Obs. 54 The exposed tumour inflamed and sloughed progressively, till it entirely came away. 1846 F. Brittan tr. Malgaigne's Man. Oper. Surg. 319 The columna..sloughed from the fourth day, and was removed with the scissors. 1880 MacCormac Antiseptic Surg. 14 In the other case of protracted recovery, a large portion of skin sloughed. |
| fig. 1861 Lytton & Fane Tannhäuser 49 [To] seek from gross hearts, slough'd in sin, Approval of pure Love to win. |
2. trans. To eat away, to throw off, by the formation of a slough or sloughs.
| 1762 R. Guy Pract. Obs. Cancers 48 Four large Ulcers were sloughing the Breast away. 1844 H. Stephens Bk. Farm II. 612 The portion of the vertebra which has been cut through will have to be sloughed off before the wound can heal. |
3. a. Of a serpent or similar reptile: To cast or shed (the skin) as a slough; to exuviate.
| 1845 [see b.]. 1854 M. Howitt Pict. Cal. Seasons 427 About the middle of the month [September] the common snake sloughs or casts its skin. 1870 Gillmore tr. Figuier's Reptiles & Birds i. 13 Reptiles..slough their old covering, or in other words cast their skin. |
| absol. 1875 Tennyson Q. Mary iii. iii, The serpent that hath slough'd will slough again. 1897 G. C. Bateman Vivarium 231 Young Snakes slough more frequently than their older relatives do. |
b. fig. To cast off, drop, discard, give up, get rid of (something). Also with off.
| (a) 1845 De Quincey Susp. de Prof. i. in Blackw. Mag. LVII. 283, I saw a ewe suddenly put off and abjure her own nature, in a service of love—yes, slough it as completely, as ever serpent sloughed his skin. 1851 D. Jerrold St. Giles xxii. 226 With such change, he cannot but slough much of the bad reputation..fixed upon him. 1876 Meredith Beauch. Career II. xvi. 287 Nevil will slough his craze. |
| (b) 1848 Milnes Life, Lett., etc. Keats I. 23 The wonder is rather that he sloughed off so fast, so many of his offending peculiarities. 1860 Maury Phys. Geogr. (ed. 8) ii. §112 Why does the Gulf Stream slough off and cast upon its outer edge, sea-weed, drift-wood [etc.]? 1873 T. Hardy Pair of Blue Eyes II. 3 She could slough off a sadness and replace it by a hope. |
4. To take off in grinding.
| 1844 H. Stephens Bk. Farm II. 353 The small bran..is only generated after the large bran has been sloughed off. |
5. intr. Of soil, rock, etc.: to fall away or slide down into an adjoining hole or depression.
| 1897 W. Starling Floods of Mississippi i. 14/1 Water leaking through the old bank infiltrates the new earth and it sloughs away bodily. 1942 W. Faulkner Go down, Moses 30 As though the whole mound had stooped roaring down at him—the entire overhang sloughed. 1955 Hennes & Ekse Fund. Transportation Engin. ii. 30 The processes of weathering tend to loosen surface material and cause it to slough and drift down any slope greater than the angle of repose of the dry loose material. 1957 A. C. Clarke Deep Range v. 54 Sometimes, in deep ocean waters far from the eternal rain of silt which sloughs down from the edges of the continents, it was possible to see as much as two hundred feet. 1974 P. L. Moore et al. Drilling Practices Manual iii. 46 Shale sloughs into the hole. |
Hence sloughed (slʌft), ppl. a.
| 1857 Gosse Omphalos ix. 248 note, ‘The rattle is cast annually’ with the sloughed skin. 1897 W. Starling Floods of Mississippi i. 14/1 A good thick dressing of brush is laid on the sloughed mass. |