grough

English

Etymology

Possibly the same word as gruff (“rough”, adj), describing the terrain. Compare clough.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɡɹʌf/

Noun

grough (plural groughs)

1. A natural channel or gully in a peat moor, sometimes very steep and deep, and through which water sometimes flows. (Compare hag.)
   • 2014 May 1, Pete Draper, Bivouacs and Other Nocturnal Wanderings, Lulu.com, →ISBN, page 68:

     […] leaving you "pathless" in the middle of the moor. […] you step into the nearest grough […] after a hundred yards or so, the grough that you have so wisely chosen, now has sides of eleven feet high and according to your compass, has wandered off course and is now definitely not taking you in your intended direction.

   • 2017, Benjamin Myers, The Gallows Pole, Bloomsbury, published 2019, page 101:

     The shallow slow-running groughs fed the hag with a trickle of coppery water.

Alternative forms

• gruff (noun)