Trough

Pronunciation

• RP IPA: /tɹɒf/
• US enPR: trôf, IPA: /tɹɔf/
• US enPR: trŏf, IPA: /tɹɑf/
• US dialectal enPR: trôth, IPA: /tɹɔθ/; cot-caught IPA: /tɹɑθ/
• Rhymes: -É’f

Origin

From Old English trog, from Proto-Germanic *trugą, *trugaz (compare West Frisian trôch, Dutch trog, Swedish tråg), from Proto-Indo-European *dru-kó (compare Middle Irish drochta ("wooden basin"), Old Armenian տարգալ (targal, "ladle, spoon"), enlargement of *dóru ("tree")). More at tree.

Full definition of trough

Noun

1. A long, narrow container, open on top, for feeding or watering animals.One of Hank's chores was to slop the pigs' trough each morning and evening.
2. Any similarly shaped container.
1. (Australia, New Zealand) A rectangular container used for washing or rinsing clothes.Ernest threw his paint brushes into a kind of trough he had fashioned from sheet metal that he kept in the sink.
3. A short, narrow canal designed to hold water until it drains or evaporates.There was a small trough that the sump pump emptied into; it was filled with mosquito larvae.
4. (Canada) A gutter under the eaves of a building; an eaves trough.The troughs were filled with leaves and needed clearing.
5. (agriculture, Australia, New Zealand) 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.
6. A long, narrow depression between waves or ridges; the low portion of a wave cycle.The buoy bobbed between the crests and troughs of the waves moving across the bay.The neurologist pointed to a troubling trough in the pattern of his brain-waves.
7. (meteorology) A linear atmospheric depression associated with a weather front.

Verb

1. To eat in a vulgar style, as if eating from a troughhe troughed his way through 3 meat pies.