Verb (used with object) : to slough off a bad habit.    From Dictionary.com. 

To avoid such possible inversion, early party leaders began "sloughing" votes off the party's vice presidential choice.    From Wordnik.com.  [FindLaw Writ - Recent Articles] Reference

America’s obsession with "sloughing" by examining nationalism in John Louis O’Sullivan’s.    From Wordnik.com.  ['An Anti-Democratic Habit of Feeling': Nationalism and the Rhetoric of Toryism in O'Sullivan's Democratic Review] Reference

The most common occurrence is sloughing of the tail; and in.    From Wordnik.com.  [Cattle and Their Diseases Embracing Their History and Breeds, Crossing and Breeding, And Feeding and Management; With the Diseases to which They are Subject, And The Remedies Best Adapted to their Cure] Reference

No benefit results from sloughing and it should be avoided.    From Wordnik.com.  [Lameness of the Horse Veterinary Practitioners' Series, No. 1] Reference

If the tissues are badly torn or bruised, swelling and sloughing may occur.    From Wordnik.com.  [Common Diseases of Farm Animals] Reference

There was some sloughing, but this was treated on general surgical principles.    From Wordnik.com.  [Scientific American Supplement, No. 841, February 13, 1892] Reference

Somewhere just below that soil was her head, her face sloughing off and wormed.    From Wordnik.com.  [Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town] Reference

There was no sloughing; the swelling disappeared without any necrosis of tissue.    From Wordnik.com.  [Scientific American Supplement, No. 841, February 13, 1892] Reference

GUPTA: It's sloughing (ph) off a lot of cells in your gut, in your digestive system.    From Wordnik.com.  [CNN Transcript Apr 9, 2007] Reference

Fresh snow, steep terrain and the snow that's on that terrain has been sloughing off.    From Wordnik.com.  [CNN Transcript Dec 19, 2006] Reference

This patient ultimately recovered, but only after sloughing and prolonged suppuration.    From Wordnik.com.  [Scientific American Supplement, No. 841, February 13, 1892] Reference

Each of these was applied as a vulnerary, not to sloughing sores, but to fresh cut wounds.    From Wordnik.com.  [Herbal Simples Approved for Modern Uses of Cure] Reference

Great sloughing of the parts takes place, and the animal has eventually to be slaughtered.    From Wordnik.com.  [Diseases of the Horse's Foot] Reference

We've heard we may have shoulder sloughing and perhaps some lane damage in a small part of I-5.    From Wordnik.com.  [CNN Transcript Dec 4, 2007] Reference

When the glands pass into a sloughing state, the parts connected with them are frequently damaged.    From Wordnik.com.  [Hydriatic treatment of Scarlet Fever in its Different Forms] Reference

PHILLIPS: And you bring up a good point about finding weaknesses, finding who is sloughing off and where.    From Wordnik.com.  [CNN Transcript Jan 5, 2010] Reference

After all, one of the most attractive features about being “well brought up” is the fun of sloughing off.    From Wordnik.com.  [Working With the Working Woman] Reference

TREATMENT: When Ergotism is so advanced as to produce sloughing of the feet it is best to destroy the animal.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Veterinarian] Reference

The gangrenous variety begins with coldness and weakness of the extremities followed by gangrene and sloughing.    From Wordnik.com.  [Scientific American Supplement, No. 392, July 7, 1883] Reference

He drew a deep breath and stretched widely, sloughing off mental sloth in the physical act as young things can.    From Wordnik.com.  [Secret Bread] Reference

Deep-contused wounds may be followed by loss of tissue or sloughing, and may present irregular, swollen margins.    From Wordnik.com.  [Common Diseases of Farm Animals] Reference

In ten seconds the nose cone turned from cherry-red to white heat and began sloughing its outer ceramic coating.    From Wordnik.com.  [Make Mine Homogenized] Reference

Oatmeal into the grounds of strong beer is a capital cleansing and healing application to languid sloughing sores.    From Wordnik.com.  [Herbal Simples Approved for Modern Uses of Cure] Reference

Under the irritation the latter, as we have said before, cast the necrosed portion away by a process of sloughing.    From Wordnik.com.  [Diseases of the Horse's Foot] Reference

A contused-lacerated wound should not be closed with sutures unless it is clean and shows no evidence of sloughing.    From Wordnik.com.  [Common Diseases of Farm Animals] Reference

After two weeks of the treatment sloughing of the inside of the sinuses occurs, and healing of the wound commences.    From Wordnik.com.  [Diseases of the Horse's Foot] Reference

The cross section of the dam and method of construction will be such as to insure against any slip or sloughing off.    From Wordnik.com.  [State of the Union Address (1790-2001)] Reference

  The city had stepped through autumn's door and was moving cautiously into the new season, sloughing off degrees as it went.    From Wordnik.com.  [Caitlin in the Y2K Museum] Reference

By this means sloughing of the diseased portion is quickly obtained, and nothing but an ordinary open wound left for treatment.    From Wordnik.com.  [Diseases of the Horse's Foot] Reference

So, the Vatican, too, must weather the sloughing economy and perhaps even pray for the resurrection of the once almighty dollar.    From Wordnik.com.  [CNN Transcript Jul 17, 2008] Reference

It was thought best to allow the sloughing omentum, which was very foul, to separate spontaneously, and then to return the stump.    From Wordnik.com.  [Surgical Experiences in South Africa, 1899-1900 Being Mainly a Clinical Study of the Nature and Effects of Injuries Produced by Bullets of Small Calibre] Reference

Because of the erosions and sloughing of the tissues of the mouth, feet and udder it becomes necessary to kill many of the animals.    From Wordnik.com.  [Common Diseases of Farm Animals] Reference