Slough n.
1. A place of deep mud or mire; a hole full of mire.
He's here stuck in a slough. --Milton.
2. A wet place; a swale; a side channel or inlet from a river.
Note: [In this sense local or provincial; also spelt sloo, and slue.]
Slough grass Bot., a name in the Mississippi valley for grasses of the genus Muhlenbergia; -- called also drop seed, and nimble Will.
Drop n.
1. The quantity of fluid which falls in one small spherical mass; a liquid globule; a minim; hence, also, the smallest easily measured portion of a fluid; a small quantity; as, a drop of water.
With minute drops from off the eaves. --Milton.
As dear to me as are the ruddy drops
That visit my sad heart. -- Shak.
That drop of peace divine. --Keble.
2. That which resembles, or that which hangs like, a liquid drop; as a hanging diamond ornament, an earring, a glass pendant on a chandelier, a sugarplum (sometimes medicated), or a kind of shot or slug.
3. Arch. (a) Same as Gutta. (b) Any small pendent ornament.
4. Whatever is arranged to drop, hang, or fall from an elevated position; also, a contrivance for lowering something; as: (a) A door or platform opening downward; a trap door; that part of the gallows on which a culprit stands when he is to be hanged; hence, the gallows itself. (b) A machine for lowering heavy weights, as packages, coal wagons, etc., to a ship's deck. (c) A contrivance for temporarily lowering a gas jet. (d) A curtain which drops or falls in front of the stage of a theater, etc. (e) A drop press or drop hammer. (f) Mach. The distance of the axis of a shaft below the base of a hanger.
5. pl. Any medicine the dose of which is measured by drops; as, lavender drops.
6. Naut. The depth of a square sail; -- generally applied to the courses only.
7. Act of dropping; sudden fall or descent.
Ague drop, Black drop. See under Ague, Black.
Drop by drop, in small successive quantities; in repeated portions. “Made to taste drop by drop more than the bitterness of death.” --Burke.
Drop curtain. See Drop, n., 4. (d).
Drop forging. Mech. (a) A forging made in dies by a drop hammer. (b) The process of making drop forgings.
Drop hammer Mech., a hammer for forging, striking up metal, etc., the weight being raised by a strap or similar device, and then released to drop on the metal resting on an anvil or die.
Drop kick Football, a kick given to the ball as it rebounds after having been dropped from the hands.
Drop lake, a pigment obtained from Brazil wood. --Mollett.
Drop letter, a letter to be delivered from the same office where posted.
Drop press Mech., a drop hammer; sometimes, a dead-stroke hammer; -- also called drop.
Drop scene, a drop curtain on which a scene is painted. See Drop, n., 4. (d).
Drop seed. Bot. See the List under Glass.
Drop serene. Med. See Amaurosis.