clough

plural cloughs · alternative Scotland cleugh · alternative Scotland cleuch · alternative Cumbria Northumbria cleugh

1. Northern EnglandUSA narrow valley; a cleft in a hillside; a ravine, glen, or gorge.

   The rabbit killer left his home for the clough

   1982, The Fall, “Jawbone and the Air-Rifle”, in Hex Enduction Hour

   4 more examples

   The day-sky glimmered on the dew[…] And lurked in heath and braken clough

   1813, James Hogg, The Queen's Wake

   These beds form no good escarpments southward of the clough; but they appear to be higher than the corresponding beds on the opposite side; there would thus seem to be a fault in the valley downthrowing on the west, but it is quite hidden by débris.

   1875, Edward Hull, John Roche Dakyns, Richard Hill Tiddeman, The Geology of the Burnley Coal-field and of the Country Around Clitheroe, Blackburn, Preston, Chorley, Haslingden, and Todmorden, page 104

   The features of a clough fall well in with a Teutonic idea that Thor, their thunder-god, had smitten these places when in fits of fury and made the deep gashes in the hillsides.

   1902, Yorkshire Dialect Society, Transactions - Volumes 1-4, page 20

   Now we've sorted that out, the easiest way is up the clough and along the bridleway.

   2014, Malc Cowle, Trespassers! A Tribute to Fighters for the Freedom to Roam, page 189

2. A sluice used in returning water to a channel after depositing its sediment on the flooded land.

   I have, accordingly, estimated the depth of drain at the lower end to be 1 foot 6 inches deeper than the fill of the clough, and given it a progressive rise to suit with 5 feet depth below the surface at its head.

   1801, William Chapman, Sundry Papers and Reports, page 34

   4 more examples

   When the spring tide begins to ebb, the flood gate is opened to admit the tide, the clough having been previously shut by the weight of water brouht up the river by the flow of the tide. As the tide ebbs down the river, the weight or pressure of water being taken from the outside of the clough next the river, the tide water that has been previously admitted by the flood gate opens the clough again, and discharges itself slowly but completely through it.

   1808, William Humphrey Marshall, A review of the reports to the Board of agriculture - Volume 1, page 394

   For a view of a clough, see Mr. Young's Northern Tour, Vol. I. Plate III. p. 212. the floodgates and sluices for letting in the water are like the common sluices and gates in canals for raising the water to assist the passage of boats; sometimes also the flood-gates or sluices are placed above the clough perpendicularly.

   1830, Sir David Brewster, The Edinburgh Encyclopædia - Volume 1, page 346

   These entries are, in my opinion, inconsistent with the view that the plaintiff's predecessors were the owners of the clough or were entitled to use it as of right subject only ( if at all ) to mere regulations as to user by the commissioners, or with any view except that the plaintiff's predecessors is using the clough did so under a revocable licence.

   1896, “Creyke v. Corporation of the Level of Hatfield Chase”, in The Times Law Reports, volume 12, page 385

   The person navigating any vessel […] Shall, on entering double locks, or a lock having a side pond, draw the middle clough, sluice, or paddle, to bring the water in the locks or lock and side pond to the same level, and shall not draw the upper or lower cloughs, sluices or paddles, as the case may be, until the middle clough, sluice, or paddle is again lowered.

   1901, Sir Edward Boyle, Thomas Waghorn, The Law Relating to Traffic on Railways and Canals, page 431

3. dialectalThe cleft or fork of a tree; crotch.

   The same praise should not be refused to the North-countryman who talks of "the clough" of the tree, literally the valley, the cleft, where the branches part.

   1865 July, George Smith, William Makepeace Thackeray, “The Poetry of Provincialisms”, in The Cornhill Magazine, volume 12, page 39

4. dialectalA wood; weald.

plural cloughs

1. alternativehistoricalAlternative form of cloff (“allowance of two pounds in every three hundredweight”).

   Tare, Trett, and Clough, are to be deducted out of the Gross Weight; and the remainder is the Neat Weight of such Goods; for which the trader pays the Merchant who sells them, at so much per Hundred, Pound, &c. according to Agreement.

   1738, William Markham, A General Introduction to Trade and Business, page 184

   2 more examples

   4. Clough, which is an Allowance in every Draught of the Scale, that the Weight may hold out in case they are re-weigh'd. Tare, Tret, and Clough, are to be deducted out of the Gross Weight, and the remainder is the neat Weight of the Goods.

   1747, “Directions for Mercantile Business”, in The Universal Library of Trade and Commerce, page 27

   This Clough is an Allowance on some Sort of Goods for the Turn of the Scale, and when you have deducted the Tret, as in the last Question, that Remainder, 46 C. 3 qrs. 6 lbs. must still be called Suttle, because you have the Clough yet to be deducted from it.

   1787, Joseph Randall, The New Book of Knowledge, page 59

1. A surname transferred from the common noun.

   The crash happened near South Bank on 22 August when a Volkswagen Passat travelled the wrong way on the dual carriageway and hit a police car. Two police officers in the vehicle, PC Matthew Blades, 37, and PC Tom Clough, 38, were also killed.

   2026 September 3, Caroline Briggs, “Schools to close early for A66 crash funeral”, in BBC News, retrieved 03 Sep 2026

2. A village and townland in County Down, Northern Ireland.
3. A village in County Laois, Ireland.
4. An extinct town in Meade County, South Dakota, United States.