haugh

H4A1U1G2H4
Northern England, Scotland/hɔː/Northern England, Scotland/hɔːx/

noun

A low-lying meadow by the side of a river.

Similar
inch
OriginScots haugh ← Northern Middle English *halgh ← Old English healh →
UncommonScrabble 12
Ask AI about this wordChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

Meanings

haugh1

nounhaugh (plural haughs)

plural haughs

  1. IrelandNorthern EnglandScotlandA low-lying meadow by the side of a river.

    The cattle had […] loved their life in the haughs of Echt, south there across the uncouthy hills was a world cold and unchancy.

    1932, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Sunset Song (A Scots Quair), Polygon, published 2006, page 46
    3 more examples

    The sheriff of the county of Lanark was holding the wappen-schaw of a wild district, called the Upper Ward of Clydesdale, on a haugh, or level plain, near to a royal borough, […]

    1816, Jedadiah Cleishbotham [pseudonym; Walter Scott], chapter II, in Tales of My Landlord, […], volume I (The Black Dwarf), Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for William Blackwood, […]; London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, pages 35–36

    The position of the playfield is here identified as lying north of this open space between it and the burn, and occupying the haugh which extended west […]

    1884, Alexander Maxwell, The History of Old Dundee

    It was sung from the top of the oldest house in the burgh every June at the Common riding, which served both for a perambulation of the bounds of the common pastures or Haughs and to commemorate the young men of Harwick[.]

    1977, K.M. Elizabeth Murray, Caught in the Web of Words, Oxford: Oxford University Press, page 27

    Synonyms: inch

Haugh2

proper nounHaugh (plural Haughs)

plural Haughs

  1. An English surname.

Synonyms & antonyms

nounA low-lying meadow by the side of a river.

Similar
inch

Origin

haugh · noun

  1. Proto-West Germanic*halh
  2. Old Englishhealh“corner, nook”
  3. Northern Middle English*halgh
  4. Scotshaugh
  5. Englishhaugh

From Northern English dialectal and Scots haugh, from Northern Middle English *halgh, from Old English healh (“corner, nook”), from Proto-West Germanic *halh. Doublet of hale.

More words from Scots, Northern Middle English, Old English

Full word history & related roots →

Haugh · proper noun

  1. Early Scotshalh“minor elevation in a marshland”
  2. Old Irishech“horse”
  3. EnglishHaugh

* As an Irish surname, from Ó hEachach (“descendant of Eochu”), a popular name derived from Old Irish ech (“horse”). * As an English and Scottish surname, from Early Scots halh (“minor elevation in a marshland”). * Also as an English surname, variant of Hough.

More words from Old Irish, Early Scots

Full word history & related roots →

Rhymes & wordplay

Rhymes with haugh

lawsawrawdrawshawawwithdrawMcGrawstrawwarsawwofauxjawthoughtfultauflawawepawclawthorLimbaughwaughhawthaw
All rhymes →
Cite this entry
APA

haugh. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/haugh

MLA

“haugh.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/haugh. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “haugh,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/haugh.

Source: haugh on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.