Trough

//tɹɒf// noun, verb, slang

noun, verb, slang ·Common ·Middle school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A long, narrow container, open on top, for feeding or watering animals.

    "One of Harriet's chores was to slop the pigs' trough each morning and evening."

  2. 2
    Alternative letter-case form of trough. alt-of
  3. 3
    a channel along the eaves or on the roof; collects and carries away rainwater wordnet
  4. 4
    Any similarly shaped container.

    "Now, covered concrete troughs to house the cables are laid parallel with the railway lines, cheapening maintenance because of improved accessibility for inspection and repair."

  5. 5
    a container (usually in a barn or stable) from which cattle or horses feed wordnet
Show 12 more definitions
  1. 6
    Any similarly shaped container.; A rectangular container used for washing or rinsing clothes. Australia, New-Zealand

    "Ernest threw his paint brushes into a kind of trough he had fashioned from sheet metal that he kept in the sink."

  2. 7
    a long narrow shallow receptacle wordnet
  3. 8
    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. 9
    a narrow depression (as in the earth or between ocean waves or in the ocean bed) wordnet
  5. 10
    An undivided metal urinal (plumbing fixture) colloquial
  6. 11
    a treasury for government funds wordnet
  7. 12
    A gutter under the eaves of a building; an eaves trough. Canada

    "The troughs were filled with leaves and needed clearing."

  8. 13
    a concave shape with an open top wordnet
  9. 14
    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. Australia, New-Zealand
  10. 15
    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."

  11. 16
    A low turning point or a local minimum of a business cycle.
  12. 17
    A linear atmospheric depression associated with a weather front.
Verb
  1. 1
    To eat in a vulgar style, as if from a trough.

    "He troughed his way through three meat pies."

Synonyms

All synonyms
bowlguttermangermangeraditaerospace

Example

More examples

"He sits upright, not crouched over his plate like an animal at a feeding trough."

Etymology

PIE word *dóru From Middle English trogh, from Old English troh, trog (“a trough, tub, basin, vessel for containing liquids or other materials”), from Proto-West Germanic *trog, from Proto-Germanic *trugą, *trugaz, from Proto-Indo-European *drukós, enlargement of *dóru (“tree”). See also West Frisian trôch, Dutch trog, German Trog, Danish trug, Swedish tråg; also Middle Irish drochta (“wooden basin”), Old Armenian տարգալ (targal, “ladle, spoon”). More at tree.

Related phrases

Gunn-Peterson troughLB troughLangmuir-Blodgett troughSylhet Troughbook troughglacial troughkneading troughpneumatic troughslake troughtrough laketrough lollytrough shell

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.