sludge Hear it!

sludge Definition

sludge (sluj)

noun

  1. mud, mire, or ooze covering the ground or forming a deposit at the bottom of bodies of water
  2. spongy lumps of drift ice
  3. any heavy, slimy deposit, sediment, or mass, as the waste resulting from oil refining, the mud brought up by a mining drill, the precipitate in a sewage tank, the sediment in a steam boiler or crankcase, etc.

Etymology: var. of slutch, sludge, mud: akin to ME sluchched, muddy, prob. ult. < IE base *(s)leu-, to hang limply > sleet, MHG slote, mud, ooze

sludge Related Forms
sludgy adjective sludgi·er, sludgi·est
sludge Synonyms

sludge

n.

  1. Mud

    muck, ooze, slop; see mud.

  2. Waste

    refuse, slime, filth; see residue.

sludge Usage Examples

Preposition: from

  • tank: Sludge digestion The sludge from the different tanks passes into the digester, a large vessel containing very little air.

Converse of object

  • digest: Soil erosion Soil erosion is reduced where digested sludge from farm slurry digester schemes provides a good fertilizer.
  • activate: See also activated sludge, a type of green water system where all the nutrients are kept in suspension.
  • treat: What happens if treated sludge is dumped in rivers and lakes?
  • dry: Sewage sludge: 1million tons of dried sewage sludge is produced every year resulting from 26 million tons of raw sewage sludge.
  • remove: All that existed was a fully mobile sludge removed by water alone.

Adjective modifier

  • toxic: That is not much greener than a pile of toxic sludge.
  • radioactive: Apart from the radioactive sludge it left on the plate.
  • liquid: For route 3 the fuel used for bringing liquid sludge or sludge pellets to the farmers is included.
  • brown: There were bottles of evil smelling, thick brown sludge, which tasted awful.
  • black: Busy at work were brick layers, hedge choppers, a bulldozer and one rather happy-looking bunch knee-high in black sludge.

Modifies a noun

  • thickener: Sludge thickener audits carried out at selected treatment works.
  • digestion: Such engines are sometimes run partly on the gas ( mostly methane ) from the sludge digestion tanks.
  • blanket: We were also the world pioneers of first automatic sludge blanket level detector.
  • disposal: The four investigated sludge disposal routes We choose four different disposal routes on which to perform our case study.
  • recycling: A new odor control system for the sludge recycling would also be installed during the scheme.
  • pellet: For route 3 the fuel used for bringing liquid sludge or sludge pellets to the farmers is included.

Noun used with modifier

  • sewage: The dumping of sewage sludge at sea was banned in 2000.
  • mill: Whilst the research focuses on one particular composting substrate, paper mill sludge, many of the findings could be of much wider interest.
  • waste: They cover stabilization and reduction of waste sludge, and stabilization of residue ground from heaving.

Browse dictionary entries near sludge

  1. slub
  2. SLR
  3. sloyd
  4. slowworm
  5. slowpoke
  6. slowness
  7. slowly
  8. slowdown
  9. slow-witted
  10. slow virus
  1. sludgeworm
  2. slue
  3. sluff
  4. slug
  5. slugabed
  6. slugfest
  7. sluggard
  8. slugger
  9. slugging percentage
  10. sluggish