Other forms: sloughs, sloughing, sloughed
To slough is to shed a layer of skin. Slough off, sloughing skin, the snake sloughed.
A snake sloughs its whole skin at once, including the eye scales, and does it several times a year while growing. Human skin sloughs constantly, cell by cell. Figuratively, to slough off is to get rid of something unwanted: slough off a reputation. Note the pronunciation trap — this word rhymes with rough, and the slough meaning a muddy bog rhymes with cow.
1verbsloughTo shed a layer of skin.
“The lizard sloughs its skin in patches, rubbing against stones to help it come off.”
2verbridTo get rid of something unwanted.
“She moved to a new city and sloughed off her old bad habits.”
slough is a shedding.
Middle English slogh meant a cast skin, from a Germanic root possibly related to slipping. The boggy slough is a separate word from Old English sloh.
Proto-Germanic
*sluk-
Middle English
slogh
English, today
slough
Built from
From Middle English slogh, slugh, slouh, from Proto-Germanic sluk-, perhaps related to sleupaną (“to slip, sneak”) (compare Gothic 𐍃𐌻𐌹𐌿𐍀𐌰𐌽). Akin to Middle Low German slô (“sheath, skin on a hoof”). Perhaps also related with Old Saxon slūk (“snakeskin”), Middle High German slūch, whence German Schlauch (“waterskin, hose”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in A Song of Ice and Fire