Hypertext Webster Gateway: "sluice"
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Sluice \Sluice\, n. [OF. escluse, F. ['e]cluse, LL. exclusa,
sclusa, from L. excludere, exclusum, to shut out: cf. D.
sluis sluice, from the Old French. See {Exclude}.]
1. An artifical passage for water, fitted with a valve or
gate, as in a mill stream, for stopping or regulating the
flow; also, a water gate or flood gate.
2. Hence, an opening or channel through which anything flows;
a source of supply.
Each sluice of affluent fortune opened soon.
--Harte.
This home familiarity . . . opens the sluices of
sensibility. --I. Taylor.
3. The stream flowing through a flood gate.
4. (Mining) A long box or trough through which water flows,
-- used for washing auriferous earth.
{Sluice gate}, the sliding gate of a sluice.
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Sluice \Sluice\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Sluiced}; p. pr. & vb. n.
{Sluicing}.]
1. To emit by, or as by, flood gates. [R.] --Milton.
2. To wet copiously, as by opening a sluice; as, to sluice
meadows. --Howitt.
He dried his neck and face, which he had been
sluicing with cold water. --De Quincey.
3. To wash with, or in, a stream of water running through a
sluice; as, to sluice eart or gold dust in mining.
From WordNet (r) 1.7 (wn)
sluice
n : conduit that carries a rapid flow of water controlled by a
sluicegate [syn: {sluiceway}, {penstock}]
v 1: pour as if from a sluice; "An aggressive tide sluiced across
the barrier reef." [syn: {sluice down}]
2: irrigate with water from a sluice; "sluice the earth" [syn:
{flush}]
3: flow or pour from or as if from a sluice
4: transport in or send down a sluice, as of logs
5: draw through a sluice, as of water
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