Lake vs. Slough — What's the Difference?

A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, apart from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although like the much larger oceans, they form part of Earth's water cycle.

Slough () is a large town in Berkshire, England (within the historic county of Buckinghamshire), 20 miles (32 km) west of central London (Charing Cross) and 19 miles (31 km) north-east of Reading. It is in the Thames Valley and within the London metropolitan area at the intersection of the M4, M40 and M25 motorways.

A large area of water surrounded by land

A town in south-eastern England to the west of London; population 119,400 (est. 2009).

An insoluble pigment made by combining a soluble organic dye and an insoluble mordant.

Shed or remove (a layer of dead skin)

A large inland body of fresh water or salt water.

(of soil or rock) collapse or slide into a hole or depression

A scenic pond, as in a park.

A depression or hollow, usually filled with deep mud or mire.

A large pool of liquid

Also slue A swamp, marsh, bog, or pond, especially as part of a bayou, inlet, or backwater.

A pigment consisting of organic coloring matter with an inorganic, usually metallic base or carrier, used in dyes, inks, and paints.

A state of deep despair or moral degradation.

A deep red.

The dead outer skin shed by a reptile or amphibian.

A large, landlocked stretch of water or similar liquid.

(Medicine)A layer or mass of dead tissue separated from surrounding living tissue, as in a wound, sore, or inflammation.

A large amount of liquid; as, a wine lake.

An outer layer or covering that is shed or removed.

A small stream of running water; a channel for water; a drain.

To be cast off or shed; come off

(obsolete) A pit, or ditch.

To shed a slough

(obsolete) An offering, sacrifice, gift.

(Medicine)To separate from surrounding living tissue. Used of dead tissue.

(dialectal) Play; sport; game; fun; glee.

To cast off or shed (skin or a covering)

(obsolete) A kind of fine, white linen.

To discard or disregard as undesirable or unfavorable

In dyeing and painting, an often fugitive crimson or vermillion pigment derived from an organic colorant (cochineal or madder, for example) and an inorganic, generally metallic mordant.

The skin shed by a snake or other reptile.

In the composition of colors for use in products intended for human consumption, made by extending on a substratum of alumina, a salt prepared from one of the certified water-soluble straight colors.

Dead skin on a sore or ulcer.

(obsolete) To present an offering.

(British) A muddy or marshy area.

To leap, jump, exert oneself, play.

(Eastern United States) A type of swamp or shallow lake system, typically formed as or by the backwater of a larger waterway, similar to a bayou with trees.

To make lake-red.

(Western United States) A secondary channel of a river delta, usually flushed by the tide.

A pigment formed by combining some coloring matter, usually by precipitation, with a metallic oxide or earth, esp. with aluminium hydrate; as, madder lake; Florentine lake; yellow lake, etc.

A state of depression.

A kind of fine white linen, formerly in use.

(Canadian Prairies) A small pond, often alkaline, many but not all formed by glacial potholes.

A large body of water contained in a depression of the earth's surface, and supplied from the drainage of a more or less extended area.

(transitive) To shed (skin).

To play; to sport.

(intransitive) To slide off (like a layer of skin).

A body of (usually fresh) water surrounded by land

To discard.

A purplish red pigment prepared from lac or cochineal

To commit truancy, be absent from school without permission.

Any of numerous bright translucent organic pigments

Slow.

A place of deep mud or mire; a hole full of mire.

A wet place; a swale; a side channel or inlet from a river.

The skin, commonly the cast-off skin, of a serpent or of some similar animal.

The dead mass separating from a foul sore; the dead part which separates from the living tissue in mortification.

To form a slough; to separate in the form of dead matter from the living tissues; - often used with off, or away; as, a sloughing ulcer; the dead tissues slough off slowly.

To cast off; to discard as refuse.

Necrotic tissue; a mortified or gangrenous part or mass

A hollow filled with mud

A stagnant swamp (especially as part of a bayou)

Any outer covering that can be shed or cast off (such as the cast-off skin of a snake)

Cast off hair, skin, horn, or feathers;