Word.ws English Dictionary

pluff mud

/ˌplʌf ˈmʌd/

pluff mud noun: a kind of dark, sticky, and smelly mud associated with salt marshes.

Noun

pluff mud (uncountable)

  1. (South Carolina) A kind of dark, sticky, and smelly mud associated with salt marshes.
    • There is a black mud, which is found in the marshes and other places in Charleston harbour. It is called "pluff mud", and when dry it resembles this shale more nearly than any substance I have seen.[1848, M. Tuomey, chapter VI, in Report on the Geology of South Carolina […] , Columbia S. C.: A. S. Johnston, page 136
    • The third or upper bed includes the peaty deposits, yellow sands and clays, etc., etc., which overlie the pluff mud.1868, N. A. Pratt, Ashley River Phosphates […] , Philadelphia: Inquirer Book & Job Print, page 11

Forms of pluff mud

alternative formplough mud
alternative formpluff-mud

Origin of pluff mud

From plough + mud, referring to the mud's fertilising properties. The prevailing form reflects an extinct dialectal pronunciation of plough as /plʌf/.

Questions about pluff mud

What does pluff mud mean?
Pluff mud means a kind of dark, sticky, and smelly mud associated with salt marshes.
What part of speech is pluff mud?
Pluff mud is a noun.
How do you pronounce pluff mud?
Pluff mud is pronounced /ˌplʌf ˈmʌd/.

Words near pluff mud in the dictionary

  1. pluderhose
  2. Pludes
  3. plue
  4. plues
  5. pluff
  6. pluff mud
  7. pluffed
  8. pluffiness
  9. pluffing
  10. pluffs
  11. pluffy

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pluff mud (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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