grough means A natural channel or gully in a peat moor, sometimes very steep and deep, and through which water sometimes flows. (Compare hag.). Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 100 out of 100.
grough is pronounced /ɡɹʌf/.
Why “grough” is a great word
GROUGH — [Noun] A natural channel or gully in a peat moor, often steep and deep, through which water may flow. Likely a variant of the adjective 'gruff' (meaning rough or coarse), itself from Middle Dutch 'grof' (coarse, rough), describing the terrain. Unlike a 'hag,' which is a cut or broken area of peat, or a 'clough,' a more general steep valley, a grough is a specific, water-worn incision in the soft, saturated body of the moor. It is a dark seam in the peat's fabric, a slick corridor of sphagnum and black water, a hidden declivity where one misstep sinks a boot to the knee—the landscape's slow, anatomical proof of erosion, written in soft, saturated ground.
noun
- A natural channel or gully in a peat moor, sometimes very steep and deep, and through which water sometimes flows. (Compare hag.)“[…] 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.”