Dictionary Definition
trough
Noun
1 a narrow depression (as in the earth or between
ocean waves or in the ocean bed)
2 a channel along the eaves or on the roof;
collects and carries away rainwater [syn: gutter]
3 a concave shape with an open top [syn: bowl]
4 a treasury for government funds [syn: public
treasury, till]
5 a long narrow shallow receptacle
6 a container (usually in a barn or stable) from
which cattle or horses feed [syn: manger]
User Contributed Dictionary
English
Pronunciation
- (RP) /trɒf/
- (US) /trɑːf/, /trɔːf/ /trAf/ˌ /trOf/
- Rhymes: -ɒf
Noun
- A long, narrow container, open on top,
for feeding or watering animals.
- One of Hank's chores was to slop the pigs' trough each morning and evening.
- Any similarly shaped container.
- Ernest threw his paint brushes into a kind of trough he had fashioned from sheet metal that he kept in the sink.
- (Canadian) A gutter
under the eaves of a
building; eaves
trough.
- The troughs were filled with leaves and needed cleaning.
- 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.
- A long, narrow depression between waves or ridges.
- The buoy bobbed between the crests and troughs of the waves
moving across the bay.
- The neurologist pointed to a troubling trough in the patter of his brain-waves.
- The buoy bobbed between the crests and troughs of the waves
moving across the bay.
- A linear atmospheric depression associated with a weather front.
- In Australia and New Zealand, a trough may refer to a rectangular container used for washing clothes, a channel for conveying water or other farm liquids (such as milk) from place to place by gravity, or any general 'U' or 'V' shaped channel conveying water for irrigation purposes.
Translations
A long, narrow, open container for feeding
animals
A long, narrow container open at the top
Short, narrow drainage canal
A linear atmospheric depression associated with
a weather front
- Danish: lavtryksudløber, trug
- Finnish: matalapaineen alue
- Polish: niż
Extensive Definition
Trough may refer to:
- Trough (geology), a long depression less steep than a trench
- Trough (meteorology), an elongated region of low atmospheric pressure
- Trough (physics), the lowest point on a wave
- Langmuir-Blodgett trough, a laboratory instrument
See also
Synonyms, Antonyms and Related Words
adit,
aerospace, aerosphere, air hole, air
pocket, airspace,
alveolation,
alveolus, amplitude, antinode, antrum, aqueduct, armpit, basin, billow, bore, bottom, bottom glade, bottoms, bowl, breakers, bump, burrow, canal, canalization, canalize, carve, cavity, ceiling, chamfer, channel, chisel, chop, choppiness, chopping sea,
chute, comb, comber, concave, concavity, conduit, corrugate, course, crack, crater, crest, crimp, crosswind, crypt, cup, cut, dado, dale, de Broglie wave, dell, delve, depression, diffraction, dig, dig out, dike, dingle, dip, dirty water, ditch, dredge, drill, drive, duct, eagre, eaves trough, egress, electromagnetic
radiation, electromagnetic wave, empty space, engrave, entrance, entrenchment, excavate, exit, favorable wind, flute, fog, fold, follicle, fosse, frequency, frequency band,
frequency spectrum, front,
funnel chest, furrow,
gap, gash, gill, glen, goffer, gouge, gouge out, gravity wave,
groove, ground swell,
grove, grub, guide, guided wave, gully, gutter, ha-ha, head wind,
heave, heavy sea, heavy
swell, high-pressure area, hole, hollow, hollow shell, in phase,
incise, ingress, interference, intervale, ionosphere, jetstream, kennel, lacuna, lift, light, longitudinal wave, lop, low-pressure area, lower, lunar rill, mechanical
wave, mine, moat, node, out of phase, overcast, pass, passage, passageway, peak, penstock, pentrough, period, periodic wave, pit, pleat, plow, pocket, popple, punch bowl, quarry, rabbet, radio wave, ravine, ray, reinforcement, resonance, resonance
frequency, riffle,
rifle, ripple, rise, roll, roller, rough water, roughness, rut, sap, scend, scoop, scoop out, score, scrabble, scrape, scratch, sea, seismic wave, send, shell, shock wave, shoot, shovel, sink, sinus, slit, socket, sound wave, soup, space, spade, strath, stratosphere, streak, striate, substratosphere, sunk
fence, surf, surface wave,
surge, swell, tail wind, tidal bore,
tidal wave, tide wave, transverse wave, trench, tropopause, troposphere, troughing, troughway, tsunami, tunnel, turbulence, undulation, vale, valley, visibility, visibility zero,
vug, wadi, water wave, wave, wave equation, wave motion,
wave number, wavelength, wavelet, way, white horses, whitecaps, wrinkle