MEANING
To shed or cast off an outer layer, especially skin or dead bodily tissue.
Use it for
Skin separating from the body; discarded coverings; tissue losing attachmentMake the surface detach in layers instead of simply calling it rotten.
Words that belong together
- slough off skin
- slough dead tissue
- slough in strips
On the page
The skin sloughed off when the sleeve moved.
A translucent layer was sloughing from the creature's back.
Dead tissue began to slough, exposing the wound beneath.
Nearby words
Related words
Word forms
- Base
- slough / sloughs
- Past tense
- sloughed
- Past participle
- sloughed
- Present participle
- sloughing
Full tense & aspect guide
- Present
- slough / sloughs
- Present continuous
- am/is/are sloughing
- Present perfect
- have/has sloughed
- Present perfect continuous
- have/has been sloughing
- Past
- sloughed
- Past continuous
- was/were sloughing
- Past perfect
- had sloughed
- Past perfect continuous
- had been sloughing
- Future
- will slough / sloughs
- Future continuous
- will be sloughing
- Future perfect
- will have sloughed
- Future perfect continuous
- will have been sloughing
Choose the auxiliary that agrees with your subject. These are constructions of one word, not separate entries.
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Usage notes
Primary category: horror. Often used as slough off. The body sense is pronounced sluff; same-spelled wetland nouns have different pronunciations. Shedding need not imply decay. Verb [base, third-person present, past, past participle, -ing]: slough, sloughs, sloughed, sloughed, sloughing. Noun: slough, plural sloughs (shed skin or dead tissue). Body sense pronounced sluff; terrain senses differ. Body-sense alternative spelling: sluff, sluffs, sluffed, sluffing.
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