Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use slough in a sentence

22 example sentences · noun, verb

Slough means the skin shed by a snake or other reptile. Example: “That is the slough of a rattler; we must be careful.”

Examples of slough by meaning

nounThe skin shed by a snake or other reptile.

  • That is the slough of a rattler; we must be careful.

nounDead skin on a sore or ulcer.

  • This is the slough that came off of his skin after the burn.

verbTo shed skin or outer layers.

  • This skin is being sloughed.
  • Snakes slough their skin periodically.

verbTo slide off or flake off, as an outer layer, such as skin, might do.

  • A week after he was burned, a layer of skin on his arm sloughed off.
  • An avalanche sloughing off a Utah mountainside killed a state Department of Transportation avalanche forecaster while he was surveying snow levels near a popular winter recreation area, authorities reported.2013 April 13, Michael Mello, “Avalanche forecaster killed in Utah avalanche”, in Los Angeles Times

verbTo discard.

  • East sloughed a heart.

nounA type of swamp or shallow lake system, typically formed as or by the backwater of a larger waterway, similar to a...

  • We paddled under a canopy of trees through the slough.

nounA secondary channel of a river delta, usually flushed by the tide.

  • The Sacramento River Delta contains dozens of sloughs that are often used for water-skiing and fishing.

nounA state of depression.

  • John is in a slough.

More sentences with slough

  • Slough and Staines are just two of London's satellite towns.From the entry satellite town
  • Why could Johnson not drag himself out of this slough of despond?2003, Roy Porter, Flesh in the Age of Reason (Studies in Philosophy and Religion; 9), London: Penguin Books, published 2004, →ISBN, page 183. From the entry slough of despond
  • Spanish flies applied to the skin produce blisters (vesication, with inflammation and even sloughing).2003, T. F. Allen, Hand Book of Materia Medica and Homoeopathic Therapeutics, page 266. From the entry Spanish fly
  • Wrongs, would lead to a slough of despond — and an early grave.2002 May 8, Maureen Dowd, “Ladies, Sing the Blues”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC…. From the entry Mr. Wrong
  • Divergent paths would become stony, enter dark woods and descend through sloughs of despond.1996, Tom Turner, “Metaphorical Plans”, in City as Landscape: A Post Post-modern View of Design and Planning, London; New York, N.Y.: E. &…. From the entry slough of despond
  • Now for a canter through the woods, cooning logs, and waiding sloughs.1957, The Arkansas Historical Quarterly, volume XVI, Arkansas Historical Association. From the entry coon
  • We were in a coulee, which is like a slough but deeper and with slushier muds at the bottom.1989, John McPhee, The Control of Nature, →ISBN, page 73. From the entry coulee
  • They went to the sloughs to shoot mud hens and brought home a bag of the tiny, black, greasy birds.1984, Louise Erdrich, Love Medicine, Harper Perennial, published 2009, page 91. From the entry mud hen
  • "She's wallowing in the sloughed excrudescence of my earthly self; she's gumming the punctured and bruised dermis of the hand that feeds."2006, Nancy K. Stade, 'The Desert Crop, page 354. From the entry excrudescence
  • The cobwebbed wound yarn may slough off at the nose, but such a miswind definitely means broken thread when it occurs at the base.1953, Textile Industries - Volume 117, page 169. From the entry miswind
  • In most instances the inshore holes or pockets along the surf do not produce as well as the cuts or sloughs between sand bars.1941, Raymond Russell Camp, Fishing the Surf, page 248. From the entry surf
  • In other words, is it a planed upward progress between thither and yon, or is it just a lowland slough of despond in all directions but for the pinnacular destination?2005, Patricia J. Williams, Open House: Of Family, Friends, Food, Piano Lessons, and the Search for a .... From the entry pinnacular

Meaning of slough

  1. noun The skin shed by a snake or other reptile.
  2. noun Dead skin on a sore or ulcer.
  3. verb To shed skin or outer layers.

Full definition of slough

Questions about slough in a sentence

How do you use slough in a sentence?
Slough is used as a noun and verb. For example: “That is the slough of a rattler; we must be careful.”
What is a short sentence with slough?
“East sloughed a heart.”
What does slough mean?
Slough means the skin shed by a snake or other reptile.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: slough (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use slough in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/slough. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.