cleuch

Noun

clough (plural cloughs)

1. (Northern England, US) A narrow valley; a cleft in a hillside; a ravine, glen, or gorge.
   • The day-sky glimmered on the dew[…]
     And lurked in heath and braken clough1813, James Hogg, The Queen's Wake
2. A sluice used in returning water to a channel after depositing its sediment on the flooded land.
   • I have, accordingly, estimated the depth of drain at the lower end to be 1 foot 6 inches deeper than the fill of the clough, and given it a progressive rise to suit with 5 feet depth below the surface at its head.1801, William Chapman, Sundry Papers and Reports, page 34
3. (dialectal) The cleft or fork of a tree; crotch.
   • The same praise should not be refused to the North-countryman who talks of "the clough" of the tree, literally the valley, the cleft, where the branches part.1865 July, George Smith, William Makepeace Thackeray, “The Poetry of Provincialisms”, in The Cornhill Magazine, volume 12, page 39
4. (dialectal) A wood; weald.

See all 8 meanings of clough