clough

See also: Clough

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English clough, clow, Old English *clōh, from Proto-Germanic *klanhaz (“cleft, sluice, abyss”), from Proto-Indo-European *gle-, *gel- (“to ball up, amass, stick together”). Related to Old English clingan (“to wither, pine, shrink up, cling”). Perhaps conflated or influenced by Old Norse klofi (“a cleft or rift in a hill, ravine”); compare Dutch kloof (“a slit, crevice, chink”). More at cling, clove.

Alternative forms

  • cleugh, cleuch (Scotland)

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /klʌf/, /kləf/, /klaʊ/
  • Audio of /klaʊ/ (Canadian English)(file)
  • Audio of /kləf/ (Canadian English)(file)

Noun

clough (plural cloughs)

  1. (Northern England, US) A narrow valley; a cleft in a hillside; a ravine, glen, or gorge.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Nares to this entry?)
  2. A sluice used in returning water to a channel after depositing its sediment on the flooded land.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Knight to this entry?)
  3. A cliff; a rocky precipice.
  4. (dialectal) The cleft or fork of a tree; crotch.
  5. (dialectal) A wood; weald.

Etymology 2

Alternative forms

Noun

clough (plural cloughs)

  1. Formerly an allowance of two pounds in every three hundredweight after the tare and tret are subtracted; now used only in a general sense, of small deductions from the original weight.

References

  • “clough” in Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary, 2001–2018.
  • clough in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
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