Trough definition
An example of a trough is what pigs eat out of.
An example of a trough is a long container in which plants grow next to each other.
- (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.
There was a small trough that the sump pump emptied into; it was filled with mosquito larvae.
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.
He troughed his way through 3 meat pies.
Other Word Forms
Noun
Origin of trough
- Middle English from Old English trog deru- in Indo-European roots
From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
- From Old English trog, from Proto-Germanic *trugÄ…, *trugaz (compare West Frisian trôch, Dutch trog, Swedish trÃ¥g), from Proto-Indo-European *dru-kó (compare Middle Irish drochta (“wooden basin"), Old Armenian Õ¿Õ¡Ö€Õ£Õ¡Õ¬ (targal, “ladle, spoon"), enlargement of *dóru (“tree")). More at tree.
From Wiktionary