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Mon 28 May, 2007 11:16 am
The truck's back wheels sloughed to the right.
I don't know which "slough" it is: to throw off or sth connected with mud. There was mud there.
I would have said "slewed to the right" and then I looked it up and found "slew" and "slough" are variants of each other. And seemingly can be pronounced to rhyme either with "stew" or "rough". Basically it probably means in this context there was no traction because of the water and mud so when the driver applied power the wheels just spun and acted kind of like a paddlewheel on an old steamboat and made the rear of the truck slide to the right. Messily. It's kind of about swampiness, slipperiness, and sliding.
It is entirely possible that the writer did not use the word correctly. A slough is depression or hollow in the ground, usually wet, and therefore usually muddy. I have never heard the noun slough used as a verb. However, there is a verb "to slew," which means to turn sharply. I suspect that the writer confused the two, or thought that the spellings were interchangeable. For the noun, either the spelling "slough" or the spelling "slew" is correct, and that may account for the confusion of author in using the verb. However, i don't believe that slough is ever used as a verb. Slew is almost always used as the verb, and not the noun. Speakers of the American language are unlikely to use the word slough, either as a verb or a noun.
"slough" is certainly a verb too, as in "slough off dead skin", like a snake. Multiple meanings here.
Slough as a verb is pronounced "sluff."
Slough as a noun is pronounced "sloo."
Different words, even if they are spelled the same.
very hard to tell what pronunciation it is when you're reading, not speaking.
You can tell the pronunciation by context, and of course i acknowledge that it would be difficult for someone who is not a native speaker.
I nave no use for these tools. The noun use has a weak sibilant, like an "s," and rhymes with loose, or goose.
I use these tools. The verb use has a strong sibilant, like an "z," and rhymes with ooze, or snooze.
ah, set, it's not that simple "slough--v.i. to engulf in a slough~v.i. to plod through or as if through mud", so "sloughed to the right" may be a valid usage, just not one we've ever used. And it apparently could rhyme with either stew or rough. And I like "engulf in a slough" as an almost poetic near-rhyme.
oh, never mind, I lost my way slogging through a slew of variants of "slough". "Sloughed to the right" is probably correct, but it's probably gotta be pronounced "slew".
Yes, "slew" fits perfectly. And it was rather packed snow than mud, I took the mud from "slough"
Just to put an extra spoke on the wheel, Slough is also a place in the UK.
It is one of the "new towns" that sprang up after the second world war, and its main function was to supply good community housing for those who were moving out of London.
A characterless conglomeration of concrete is a fair description. Oh, and it has a large Mars factory there, so the whole place smells of chocolate all the time.
Sir John Betjemen, after having visited the place, was not impressed at all. He wrote -
Come, friendly bombs, and fall on Slough
It isn't fit for humans now,
There isn't grass to graze a cow
Swarm over, Death!
Come, bombs, and blow to smithereens
Those air-conditioned, bright canteens,
Tinned fruit, tinned meat, tinned milk, tinned beans
Tinned minds, tinned breath.
Mess up the mess they call a town --
A house for ninety-seven down
And once a week for half-a-crown
For twenty years,
And get that man with double chin
Who'll always cheat and always win,
Who washes his repulsive skin
In women's tears,
And smash his desk of polished oak
And smash his hands so used to stroke
And stop his boring dirty joke
And make him yell.
But spare the bald young clerks who add
The profits of the stinking cad;
It's not their fault that they are mad,
They've tasted Hell.
It's not their fault they do not know
The birdsong from the radio,
It's not their fault they often go
To Maidenhead
And talk of sports and makes of cars
In various bogus Tudor bars
And daren't look up and see the stars
But belch instead.
In labour-saving homes, with care
Their wives frizz out peroxide hair
And dry it in synthetic air
And paint their nails.
Come, friendly bombs, and fall on Slough
To get it ready for the plough.
The cabbages are coming now;
The earth exhales.