Noah Webster
Slough
SLOUGH, noun slou.
1. A place of deep mud or mire; a hole full of mire.
2. [pron. sluff.] The skin or cast skin of a serpent. [Its use for the skin in general, in Shakespeare, is not authorized.]
3. [pron. sluff.] The part that separates from a foul sore. The dead part which separates from the living in mortification.
SLOUGH, verb intransitive sluff. To separate from the sound flesh; to come off; as the matter over a sore; a term in surgery.
TO slough OFF, to separate from the living parts, as the dead part in mortification.