SLUICE


Meaning of SLUICE in English

I. ˈslüs noun

( -s )

Etymology: Middle English scluse, from Middle French escluse, from Late Latin exclusa dam, sluice, from feminine of Latin exclusus, past participle of excludere to shut out, exclude — more at exclude

1.

a. : an artificial passage for water (as in a millstream) fitted with a valve or gate for stopping or regulating the flow

b. : a body of water pent up behind a floodgate or water gate

2. : a device for letting water in or out or holding it back: as

a. : a dock gate : water gate , floodgate

b. : valve , pipe

3.

a. : a stream flowing through a floodgate

b. : a conduit (as a channel or stream) that serves to drain or carry off surplus water

4. : a long inclined trough or flume usually on the ground (as for washing auriferous earth or floating down logs) ; specifically : such a contrivance paved usually with riffles to hold quicksilver for catching gold

5. : something suggestive of a sluice: as

a. : a rushing or pouring stream : spate

stopped the sluice of free advice — F.B.Gipson

great sluices of rain — Carleton Beals

b. : a pent-up flood of emotion

open the sluices of popular revolt — D.J.Dallin

II. verb

( -ed/-ing/-s )

transitive verb

1. : to cause to flow or pour forth by or as if by floodgates : draw off by or through a sluice or sluiceway

by this fresh blood that from thy manly breast I cowardly sluiced out — John Marston

2.

a. : to wash with or in a stream of water running through or from a sluice

b. : to drench, wash, or scour with gushes or floods (as of water) : flush , douse

sluice earth in mining

sluice a pavement with a hose

hydraulic jets sluice away soil layers bearing tin ore — W.R.Moore

trying to sluice his face without wetting his cuffs — Richard Llewellyn

3.

a. : to transport (as logs) in a sluice or float through a sluiceway

b. : to drive (logs) by releasing a sluice of water

intransitive verb

: to pour from or as if from a sluice

rain sluicing down to plaster his ragged shirt to his body — Marcia Davenport

Synonyms: see pour

Webster's New International English Dictionary.      Новый международный словарь английского языка Webster.