sloughing (off)

verb

variants also sluffing (off)
present participle of slough (off)
as in casting (off)
to get rid of as useless or unwanted finally sloughed off the depression that had been weighing him down for months

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for sloughing (off)
  1. losing
  2. rejecting
  3. throwing away
  4. dumping
  5. throwing out
  6. tossing
  7. eliminating
Verb
  • A week after losing 49-35 to Batavia, Maine South came out strong in all three phases of the game.
    — Bobby Narang, Chicago Tribune, 29 Aug. 2026
  • The Chiefs continue their preseason losing streak, but as The Star’s Sam McDowell writes, the next one counts.
    — Dominick Williams, Kansas City Star, 29 Aug. 2026
Definition of losing
Verb
  • The Assembly plan calls for rejecting the governor’s cap on certain damages that people can receive.
    — Stephen Hobbs, Sacbee.com, 26 Aug. 2026
  • The council would have the final say in approving — or rejecting — Lucas’ nomination.
    — Kacen Bayless, Kansas City Star, 26 Aug. 2026
Definition of rejecting
Verb
  • The New York Sanitation Department is telling New Yorkers to stop throwing away their needles the wrong way.
    — Amethyst Martinez, USA Today, 21 Aug. 2026
  • Residents described throwing away food, shelling out for generators and sending their children away to family.
    — Jen Guadarrama, IndyStar, 20 Aug. 2026
Definition of throwing away
Verb
  • Hawaii cleans up after Hurricane Lala Communities struggled to recover after Tropical Storm Lala sideswiped Hawaii as a Category 1 hurricane, sparing the islands a direct hit but dumping more than 3½ feet of rain that caused catastrophic flooding.
    — Robert Abitbol, USA Today, 22 Aug. 2026
  • Tasks included scooping and dumping sand or gravel, digging and grading trenches, clearing debris from roads, removing tree branches from water edges, and breaking up rocks.
    — New Atlas, New Atlas, 21 Aug. 2026
Definition of dumping
Verb
  • This included a fake product placement for the sauce in an episode of Bosch and one of the actors throwing out the first pitch at a minor league baseball game.
    — Peter White, Deadline, 21 Aug. 2026
  • How much are fines for throwing out needles improperly in NYC?
    — Amethyst Martinez, USA Today, 21 Aug. 2026
Definition of throwing out
Verb
  • And because nobody washed the dishes before tossing them into the feasting pit, King and his colleagues (in a 2017 study) could analyze the microscopic residue of ancient drinks that had soaked into the ceramic.
    — ArsTechnica, ArsTechnica, 27 Aug. 2026
  • Timid personal injury lawyer Kevin Avery (Will Forte) scrapes by on quick, low-stakes payouts, Acme tossing his clients a couple hundred bucks for their fast-healing wounds.
    — Amy Nicholson, Los Angeles Times, 26 Aug. 2026
Definition of tossing
Verb
  • Her leadership has been central to SMUD’s goal of eliminating carbon emissions from its power supply by 2030.
    — Nicole Buss, Sacbee.com, 27 Aug. 2026
  • Burke said the Texans are also working on eliminating miscommunications, improvement that, again, can come with time together.
    — Ted Nguyen, New York Times, 26 Aug. 2026
Definition of eliminating
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Browse Nearby Words

sloughing
sloughing (off)
slough of despond
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Sloughing (off).” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/sloughing%20%28off%29. Accessed 2 Sep. 2026.

Copy Citation
Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

Listen to the pronunciation of dissonant

See Definitions and Examples »

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

A Who’s Who Regarding ‘Who’s’ and ‘Whose’

Is it 'nerve-racking' or 'nerve-wracking'?

What's the difference between 'fascism' and 'socialism'?

Why does English have so many silent letters?

7 Pairs of Commonly Confused Words
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

Ye Olde Nincompoop: Old-Fashioned Words for 'Stupid'

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of

Even More Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

Even More Bird Names that Sound Like Insults (and Sometimes Are)

12 Lovely and Unusual Words for the Natural World
See More

Popular

See More

A Who’s Who Regarding ‘Who’s’ and ‘Whose’

Ye Olde Nincompoop: Old-Fashioned Words for 'Stupid'

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
skateboard-dog-hat
Wordmaxxing Slang Quiz Give your vocabulary a glow up by getting sendy w...
See All