"slough" (etc.)

[Douglas G. Wilson]

>Slouches still looks like the best possibility (maybe spell-checked from
>"slouchs" in the orig), set against the various ways of using (&
>pronouncing) "slough," especially in view of the fact that it is the
>father's speech  being quoted.

Jesse does indeed "slouch" elsewhere in the book ... but he doesn't slouch
*into* anything, he just slouches.

Here's another example, from a different book (from Google Books):

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Laurie De Nuccio, _How I Became a Bond Chick_ (2003): p. 12:

<<He sloughed into the living room and sat at the usual end of the over
length sofa.>>

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Here's one from 'fan fiction' (Harry Potter) on the Web:

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http://www.phoenixsong.net/fanfiction/print.php?cid=4040

<<He [Harry] sloughed into the restroom, stripped the robe and his pyjama
bottoms off and entered a steaming shower.>>

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Perhaps these instances of "slough" are indeed
'typographical'/'spell-checker' errors for "slouch".

However, I suspect this "slough" (pronounced "sluff" presumably) may mean
"shuffle", or maybe "shuffle"+"slouch".

[The 'other' intransitive "slough" means more-or-less "fall off", as in
"part of the bank sloughed into the river" or "the necrotic tumor sloughed
into the intestinal lumen". This does not seem quite appropriate.]

-- Doug Wilson


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