sludge - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

• slutch (Northern England, Scotland)

From Middle English slugge, sluche (“mud, mire”), probably an alteration of Middle English sliche, slicche ("mud, slush, tar"; whence Modern English slitch), from Old English *sliċ, from Proto-West Germanic *sliki, *slīk, from Proto-Germanic *slikiz, *slīką (“mud, slush”). Cognate with Dutch slijk, German Schlick. Compare also slush.

• IPA(key): /slʌd͡ʒ/
• Rhymes: -ʌdʒ

sludge (countable and uncountable, plural sludges)

1. Solids separated from suspension in a liquid.
   • 2013 June 29, “High and wet”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8842, page 28:
     Floods in northern India, mostly in the small state of Uttarakhand, have wrought disaster on an enormous scale. […] Rock-filled torrents smashed vehicles and homes, burying victims under rubble and sludge.
2. A residual semi-solid material left from industrial, water treatment, or wastewater treatment processes.
3. A sediment of accumulated minerals in a steam boiler.
4. A mass of small pieces of ice on the surface of a water body.
5. (uncountable, music) Ellipsis of sludge metal.
6. (behavioral science) Institutional policies that introduce tedium and inefficiency in processes.
   • [2025** June 29, Chris Colin, “That Dropped Call With Customer Service? It Was on Purpose.”, in The Atlantic‎[1], retrieved 29 June 2025, Ideas:
     In the 2008 best seller Nudge, the legal scholar Cass R. Sunstein and the economist Richard H. Thaler marshaled behavioral-science research to show how small tweaks could help us make better choices. An updated version of the book includes a section on what they called “sludge**”—tortuous administrative demands, endless wait times, and excessive procedural fuss that impede us in our lives.]

• (separated solids): mire, mud, ooze, slush

• activated sludge

• antisludge

• biliary sludge

• biosludge

• desludge

• mudge

• oil sludge

• primordial sludge

• sludge acid

• sludgecore

• sludge hole

• sludgelike

• sludgemaker

• sludge metal

• sludge out

• sludger

• sludgy

generic term for separated solids — see also slop,‎ mush

• Chinese:
  Mandarin: 污泥 (zh) (wūní)
• Esperanto: ŝlimo
• Finnish: liete (fi), lieju (fi), muta (fi)
• French: lie (fr) f
• German: Schlamm (de) m, Matsch (de) m
• Irish: dríodar m
• Japanese: 泥 (ja) (どろ, doro), 泥土 (ja) (でいど, deido)
• Korean: 진흙 (ko) (jinheuk), 진창 (jinchang)
• Māori: kene
• Plautdietsch: Moarauss m
• Portuguese: sedimento (pt) m
• Russian: шлам (ru) m (šlam), ил (ru) m (il)
• Spanish: lodo (es) m, sedimento (es) m, puaj (es) m, fango (es) m, pecina (es) f
• Ukrainian: мул m (mul)

sludge (third-person singular simple present sludges, present participle sludging, simple past and past participle sludged)

1. (intransitive, informal) To slump or slouch.
2. (intransitive) To slop or drip slowly.