Forms: 4 sogh, sohw, 5 swowȝe, swoughe, 5– sough (6 soughe, Sc. souch), 7 sowgh, saugh, 9 dial. sugh; 8– suff, 9 surf, dial. souffe, soof. See also SHEUGH. [Of obscure origin. Cf. Antwerp dial. zoeg a small ditch in a meadow.]
1. A boggy or swampy place; a small pool.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 2501. Þai fled and fell vntill a sogh [Gött. sohw], And þar þair faas þam foluand slogh.
a. 1450. Le Morte Arth., 875 (Roxb.). In a foreste by a swoughe.
1515. Scottish Field, 440, in Chetham Misc. (1856). On a soughe us beside, there seene we our enemies, Were moving over the mountains.
1612. Drayton, Poly-olb., iv. 168. Then Dulas and Cledaugh, By Morgany doe drive her through her wat’ry saugh.
1869. ‘Ouida,’ Puck, vii. The road … went through a shallow ‘sough’ of water.
1876–. in dial. glossaries (Cumb., Yks., Heref.).
2. A small gutter for draining off water; a drain, a sewer, a trench.
c. 1440. Pallad. on Husb., I. 515. The length [of the ox-stall is] as from the horn into the sough.
1523. Fitzherb., Surv., xxxv. 49. If this maner of dichynge wyll nat make the marres grounde drie, than must you make a sough vnderneth therthe as men do to gette cole.
c. 1570. Diurn. Occurr. (Bann. Cl.), 100. The said erle slipit ower ane souch, and tomblit doun the same.
1667. Primatt, City & C. Builder, 5. The charge of driving such Soughs or Trenches.
1681. in Leader, Rec. Burgery Sheffield (1897), 217. For making a sough to the pinfold.
1763. Ann. Reg., II. 100/1. At proper distances, soughs are formed near the top of the canal, which prevents it from overflowing during immoderate rains.
1780. Phil. Trans., LXX. 346. I shall lay a sough of brick, which will convey it from the pump to the boiler.
1805. R. W. Dickson, Pract. Agric., I. 301. The most difficult part of the business consists in laying the sough when in running sands.
1833. Act 3 & 4 Will. IV., c. 46 § 116. Any water pipe, sough, or watercourse already laid down … in … any of the streets.
1885. Law Times’ Rep., LII. 356/2. Various old stone soughs, which … received the sewage of a number of houses.
attrib. 1892. T. B. F. Eminson, Epidemic Pneumonia at Scotter, 18. The out-door premises … drained off through some common sough pipes.
3. A subterranean drain to carry off the water in a mine; an adit of a mine.
1619. Atkinson, Gold Mynes Scotl. (Bann. Cl.), 15. To frame or make a long sowgh, or scowring place, into which they bringe the streame water.
1653. Manlove, Customes Lead Mines, 260 (E. D. S.). Main Rakes, Cross Rakes, Brown-henns, Budles and Soughs.
1686. Plot, Staffordsh., 137. This sort of damp … is that they commonly meet with in long Soughs for conveyance of water from the coale.
1747. Hooson, Miner’s Dict., T ij b. These Addits or Soughs if they prove soft, destroy a great deal of Timber, especially in Sand.
1778. W. Pryce, Min. Cornub., 81. The Sough or Adit being one hundred fathoms below the surface.
1851. Act 14 & 15 Vict., c. 94 § 26. If any Person shall, by virtue of any Sough Engine or other Means, unwater or give Relief to any Mine or Vein which may be under Water.
1882. R. L. Galloway, Coal Mining, 25. The drainage of the mines was effected by means of the horizontal tunnels…, which were variously termed adits, watergates, soughs, surfs.
