STREAM


Meaning of STREAM in English

/ striːm; NAmE / noun , verb

■ noun

1.

a small narrow river :

mountain streams

—see also downstream , upstream , the Gulf Stream

2.

stream (of sth) a continuous flow of liquid or gas :

A stream of blood flowed from the wound.

—see also bloodstream

3.

stream (of sth/sb) a continuous flow of people or vehicles :

I've had a steady stream of visitors.

Cars filed past in an endless stream.

4.

stream of sth a large number of things that happen one after the other :

a constant stream of enquiries

The agency provided me with a steady stream of work.

5.

( especially BrE ) a group in which students of the same age and level of ability are placed in some schools :

She was put into the fast stream.

IDIOMS

- be / come on stream

■ verb

1.

stream (from sth) | stream (with sth) ( of liquid or gas ) to move or pour out in a continuous flow; to produce a continuous flow of liquid or gas :

[ v ]

Tears streamed down his face.

a streaming cold (= with a lot of liquid coming from the nose)

Blood was streaming from her head.

Her head was streaming with blood.

[ v , vn ]

Black smoke streamed from the exhaust.

The exhaust streamed black smoke.

2.

( of people or things ) [ v + adv. / prep. ] to move somewhere in large numbers, one after the other :

People streamed across the bridge.

3.

[ v ] to move freely, especially in the wind or water :

Her scarf streamed behind her.

4.

[ vn ] [ usually passive ] ( especially BrE ) ( NAmE usually track ) ( in schools ) to put school students into groups according to their ability :

Pupils are streamed for French and Maths.

5.

[ vn ] ( computing ) to play video or sound on a computer by receiving it as a continuous stream, from the Internet for example, rather than needing to wait until the whole of the material has been downloaded

••

WORD ORIGIN

Old English strēam (noun), of Germanic origin; related to Dutch stroom , German Strom , from an Indo-European root shared by Greek rhein to flow.

Oxford Advanced Learner's English Dictionary.      Оксфордский английский словарь для изучающик язык на продвинутом уровне.