slough

1.

/slʌf /

cast off hair, skin, horn, or feathers

2.

/slu/

a hollow filled with mud

Other forms: sloughs; sloughing; sloughed

When you slough, you get rid of the rough. To slough is to remove an outer layer, like filing dry skin from feet. You can slough away emotions too, like the heebie-jeebies you get thinking about dead skin from people's feet. Ew.

Slough rhymes with "rough." It doesn't sound as though it'll give you a beautiful result, but when you slough away old skin, new skin appears. Snakes shed or slough off their skins as they grow and get rid of icky cells, and humans do the same, though fortunately we don't slough off one big skin as snakes do. Maybe it's best to slough off that mental image with a nicer one.

Definitions of slough (/slʌf /)

1. verb

   cast off hair, skin, horn, or feathers
   synonyms: exuviate, molt, moult, shed

   types:

   desquamate, peel off

   peel off in scales

   type of:

   cast, cast off, drop, shake off, shed, throw, throw away, throw off

   get rid of
2. noun

   any outer covering that can be shed or cast off (such as the cast-off skin of a snake)
   type of:

   cover, covering, natural covering

   a natural object that covers or envelops
3. noun

   necrotic tissue; a mortified or gangrenous part or mass
   synonyms: gangrene, sphacelus

   types:

   cold gangrene, dry gangrene, mumification necrosis, mummification

   (pathology) gangrene that develops in the presence of arterial obstruction and is characterized by dryness of the dead tissue and a dark brown color

   clostridial myonecrosis, emphysematous gangrene, emphysematous phlegmon, gangrenous emphysema, gas gangrene, gas phlegmon, progressive emphysematous necrosis

   (pathology) a deadly form of gangrene usually caused by clostridium bacteria that produce toxins that cause tissue death; can be used as a bioweapon

   type of:

   pathology

   any deviation from a healthy or normal condition