trough

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. A long, narrow container, open on top, for feeding or watering animals.
  2. Any similarly shaped container.
  3. A rectangular container used for washing or rinsing clothes.
  4. A short, narrow canal designed to hold water until it drains or evaporates.
  5. An undivided metal urinal (plumbing fixture)
  6. A gutter under the eaves of a building; an eaves trough.
  7. A channel for conveying water or other farm liquids (such as milk) from place to place by gravity; any ‘U’ or ‘V’ cross-sectioned irrigation channel.
  8. A long, narrow depression between waves or ridges; the low portion of a wave cycle.
  9. A low turning point or a local minimum of a business cycle.
  10. A linear atmospheric depression associated with a weather front.
verb
  1. To eat in a vulgar style, as if from a trough.
noun
  1. Alternative letter-case form of trough.

Pronunciation

/tɹɒf/ LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-trough.wav /tɹɔf/ /tɹɑf/ En-us-trough.ogg trôth /tɹɔθ/ /tɹɑθ/ [tɹɔ̟f]

Word forms

trough troughs troughing troughed

Etymology

PIE word *dóru From Middle English trogh, from Old English troh, trog (“a trough, tub, basin, vessel for containing liquids or other materials”), from Proto-West Germanic *trog, from Proto-Germanic *trugą, *trugaz, from Proto-Indo-European *drukós, enlargement of *dóru (“tree”). See also West Frisian trôch, Dutch trog, German Trog, Danish trug, Swedish tråg; also Middle Irish drochta (“wooden basin”), Old Armenian տարգալ (targal, “ladle, spoon”). More at tree.

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