SLOUGH

Slow. [Obs.] Chaucer.

A place of deep mud or mire; a hole full of mire. Chaucer. He's here stuck in a slough. Milton.

[Pronounced sloo.]

A wet place; a swale; a side channel or inlet from a river.

imp. of Slee, to slay. Slew. Chaucer.

The skin, commonly the cast-off skin, of a serpent or of some similar animal.

The dead mass separating from a foul sore; the dead part which separates from the living tissue in mortification.

To form a slough; to separate in the form of dead matter from the living tissues; -- often used with off, or away; as, a sloughing ulcer; the dead tissues slough off slowly.

To cast off; to discard as refuse. New tint the plumage of the birds, And slough decay from grazing herds. Emerson.