Descriptive meanings

• In the UK, a slough is a muddy or marshy area.
• In eastern and southeastern United States, a slough is a type of swamp or shallow lake system, typically formed as or by the backwater of a larger waterway. It is similar to a bayou with trees being present (that is, a swamp), and unlike a bog or marsh that lacks trees. It can also refer to the area of deeper water between a sandbar and a beach or between two sandbars.
• The term slough appears as well in the names of oxbow lakes, for example Meadowbrook Slough of Snoqualmie River in Washington State.
• In the western U.S., a slough is a secondary channel of a river delta or a narrow channel in a shallow salt-water marsh, usually flushed by the tide. While this is in essence the same application of the term as used in the eastern U.S., a singular difference is that there exist no native trees in the west that would grow out into the waterway to form a swamp, such as the Elkhorn Slough
• In the northern Great Plains of the U.S., a slough is a pond (often alkaline) usually the result of glaciation (see kettle (geology)); also called a pothole, whence Prairie Pothole Region to describe the area where these sloughs are abundant.
• In the Canadian Prairies, slough refers to a naturally formed shallow freshwater pond, usually habitat for waterfowl.
• In the case of the Sammamish Slough in the United States Pacific Northwest, slough refers to a slow-moving, canal-like river.

Examples

Famosa Slough, San Diego County, California