You have come across the word "trough" more than once in your speech. This is a noun. It belongs to the middle class. Let's figure out what specific interpretation the noun "trough" is endowed with. It can have two shades of meaning, direct and figurative. It all depends on the specific context.
Meaning of the word
In Efremova's dictionary you can find the true meaning of this word.
- An oblong vessel designed for washing and other household needs. Made from wood or galvanized iron. Initially, troughs were made like this: they took a large log split in half, and then hollowed it out to form a vessel. Used a trough for washing clothes. They also bathed in troughs. You can also grow plants in them.
- An old boat or ship that has fallen into disrepair. It is worth noting that this is a figurative meaning, it has a touch of neglect. It indicates a negative characteristic, for example, of a car. It can also be called junk or a tin can.
Examples of usage
Now we can move on to examples of usage. As you know, in practice, knowledge is absorbed many times better.
- This trough is split and cannot be washed in.
- Yes, this is not a car, but a real trough.
- After two buckets of warm water were poured into a galvanized trough, we added some washing powder and started washing clothes.
- A child bathed in a trough.
- What do you want from this old trough? It has been in the port for two years and has not moved.
- We put the iron trough on the stove to heat it up a little.
- We kept apples in the trough.
A trough in literature
You must have seen the word trough in the literature. How can one not remember Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin and his "Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish"? Remember that the old woman ordered to beg from the fish in the first place? That's right, a brand new trough.
And only then did her appetite go wild. But initially she needed it, as the old one completely split.
Since then, the idiom "stay with nothing" has taken root in the Russian language. That is, to be left with nothing, to lose everything that was.
Please note that this idiom is acceptable for colloquial or artistic style. You cannot use it in scientific texts or in official documentation. Otherwise, you will just make a stylistic mistake.
When can a person be left with nothing? For example, he spends all his income onentertainment, nice clothes and going to restaurants. And then he is fired from his job, and he is forced to abandon his former luxurious lifestyle. I didn’t make any savings for a rainy day, so I was left with nothing.
Now you know the meaning of the word "trough". You know how to use it in sentences.
