sluice

Meanings

Plural: sluices

Noun

• conduit that carries a rapid flow of water controlled by a sluicegate
• An artificial passage for water, fitted with a valve or gate, for example in a canal lock or a mill stream, for stopping or regulating the flow.
• A water gate or floodgate.
• Hence, an opening or channel through which anything flows; a source of supply.
• The stream flowing through a floodgate.
• A long box or trough through which water flows, used for washing auriferous earth.
• An instance of wh-stranding ellipsis, or sluicing.

Verb

• pour as if from a sluice
  • "An aggressive tide sluiced across the barrier reef"
• irrigate with water from a sluice
  • "sluice the earth"
• transport in or send down a sluice
  • "sluice logs"
• draw through a sluice
  • "sluice water"
• To emit by, or as by, flood gates.
• To wet copiously, as by opening a sluice
• To wash with, or in, a stream of water running through a sluice.
• To wash (down or out).
• To flow, pour.
• To elide the complement in a coordinated wh-question. See sluicing.

Synonyms

flush, penstock, sluice down, sluiceway