trough

noun

1. A long, narrow container, open on top, for feeding or watering animals.

   “One of Harriet's chores was to slop the pigs' trough each morning and evening.”

2. Any similarly shaped container.

   “Now, covered concrete troughs to house the cables are laid parallel with the railway lines, cheapening maintenance because of improved accessibility for inspection and repair.”

   “It just clips on the front of the stage without any special trough, has no great power and occupies only one dimmer, […]”

3. (Australia, New-Zealand)Any similarly shaped container.

   “Ernest threw his paint brushes into a kind of trough he had fashioned from sheet metal that he kept in the sink.”

4. A short, narrow canal designed to hold water until it drains or evaporates.

   “There was a small trough that the sump pump emptied into; it was filled with mosquito larvae.”

5. (colloquial)An undivided metal urinal (plumbing fixture)
6. (Canada)A gutter under the eaves of a building; an eaves trough.

   “The troughs were filled with leaves and needed clearing.”

7. (Australia, New-Zealand)A channel for conveying water or other farm liquids (such as milk) from place to place by gravity; any ‘U’ or ‘V’ cross-sectioned irrigation channel.
8. A long, narrow depression between waves or ridges; the low portion of a wave cycle.

   “The buoy bobbed between the crests and troughs of the waves moving across the bay.”

   “The neurologist pointed to a troubling trough in the pattern of his brain-waves.”

9. A low turning point or a local minimum of a business cycle.
10. A linear atmospheric depression associated with a weather front.
11. (alt-of)Alternative letter-case form of trough.

verb

1. To eat in a vulgar style, as if from a trough.

   “He troughed his way through three meat pies.”