I learned it early in life because I grew up near one (the Famosa Slough).
I would pronounce it “slau” and it is kind of a wet or swampy depression in the ground, could be up to the size of a big field.
For me, the essential elements of a slough are: (1) a connection with a larger body of water; and (2) flow – specifically, very, very slow flow. To my ear the sound of “slough” is almost onomatopoetic for that. In the slough of my youth (again), the direction of flow would actually reverse twice a day with the incoming tides. Stray logs and other drift making their lazy way to the ocean could take days and days, and occasionally weeks or more, to go past. They would gain some distance on the outgoing tide, then loose most of it on the incoming. Then occasionally they’d get stuck on a mudflat as the tide went out and be pushed back even further as it came back in, so the net distance gain over a given time period could very well be negative.
I had never heard “slough” used to refer to a stagnant body of water until the topic came up in a recent conversation with someone from Minnesota. I thought it was another east-west US thing, and the dictionary I consulted more or less corroborated that. (Actually the distinction it made was between northwest US vs. midwest). But the present poll seems to suggest it is more of a coastal vs. inland difference. The definitions from west and northwest US coastal areas are similar to those from southeast coastal areas – where the word seems to mean more or less what I put above; while the definitions from the midwest US are similar to those from the Canadian prairies – where the word seems to mean a distinctly stagnant and stand-alone small body of water.
Thanks for the responses. This has been interesting and informative.
A slough is a low area of the land (prairie in my case) that is often full of standing water or mud. Unlike a pond or wetlands, it’s not always wet, although it’s usually somewhat mucky.
It can also mean something shedding/rubbing off in layers. That’s how I see it mentioned in writing.
I spent many of my formative years in South Dakota and there were many sloughs surrounding my town.
Hmm, I never knew that it was pronounced “slew” when describing a marshy area. Always thought that it was pronounced like the English town, rhyming with “plough”.
So are there any other common English words in which “ough” is pronounced “oo”? I can only think of “slough” and “through”.
As “slew,” nothing.
Flake off, like skin, and pronounced “slouf.”
It was always ‘sluff’ to me (as someone else mentioned) until I lived in Cali and I saw on the news where some kids had a wreck and drowned in one. I never knew what a slough was before that.
Without reading responses… it means nothing to me. If I read it, I’d think it was “sluff.” If I heard it, I’d think “slew… as in killed? He slew him with an axe?”
The way you’ve spelled/pronounced it, if I had to guess at gunpoint I would say something to do with a creek.
Oly: thanks for the explanation of your question, I was wondering what it was all about.
A slough is an estuary where sea water meets a freshwater river and the tide moves water in and out. Am I close? We have them around here. We pronounce them “slew”.
I suspect my lack of knowledge of sloughs stems from growing up in dry, dusty, waterless West Texas. Lots of snakes, though, which explains knowing the “sloughing skin off” meaning.
Without reading other replies:
“slough” is pronounced like “slahf” where I grew up (north central Ohio). The most common meaning is to slide off. Snow or leaves slough off a roof. Or dead skin sloughs off your arm. The second meaning is a small creek that drains a field or swamp. Usually too small to have a stony bed.
Me too. I’m from the midwest.
I know this word from reading Laura Ingalls Wilder. Took it to mean a low-lying, wet and muddy area on the plains.
Curious now to go back and see if I’m the only one who referenced LIW…I have a feeling I’m not.
I thought it’s a low-lying muddy area associated with a river, either because the river is drying up, like the lower Colorado, or when the river changes course and leaves behind an oxbow lake which later becomes a muddy flat.
When I was a kid, “slough” (pronounced sluff) meant to skip school. Even teachers and administrators used the word. “Oh, Bob is sloughing today” meant that Bob was hanging out at the 7-11 instead of in class.
With that pronunciation, I’d have no idea. On reflection, I’ve heard of the Slough of Despond, but I didn’t think people were still using that term.
A water estuary of a river, swamp like.
There is one near I live in Missouri.