clough
Part of speech: noun
Morphological type: simple
Etymology: From Middle English clough, clow, cloȝ, from Old English *clōh, from Proto-West Germanic *klą̄h (“cleft, sluice, abyss”), of uncertain origin, possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gel- (“to form into a ball”).
Cognate with Scots cleuch (“gorge; ravine”), Old High German klāh (in placenames), Old High German klingo, klinga (“brook, cataract, gulf, rapids”). Perhaps conflated or influenced by Old Norse klofi (“a cleft or rift in a hill, ravine”); compare Dutch kloof (“a slit, crevice, chink”). See also cling, clove.
Inflected forms:
form: cloughs
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: cleugh
pos: noun
tags: alternative
Scotland
form: cleuch
pos: noun
tags: alternative
Scotland
form: cleugh
pos: noun
tags: alternative
Cumbria
Northumbria
Senses:
gloss: A narrow valley; a cleft in a hillside; a ravine, glen, or gorge.
pos: noun
tags: Northern-England
US
examples: The day-sky glimmered on the dew[…]
And lurked in heath and braken clough
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.
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.
Now we've sorted that out, the easiest way is up the clough and along the bridleway.
gloss: A sluice used in returning water to a channel after depositing its sediment on the flooded land.
pos: noun
examples: 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
gloss: The cleft or fork of a tree; crotch.
pos: noun
tags: dialectal
examples: 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.
gloss: A wood; weald.
pos: noun
tags: dialectal
Derived words: Howden Clough
Translations: