/ ʃuːt; NAmE / noun
1.
a tube or passage down which people or things can slide :
a water chute (= at a swimming pool)
a laundry / rubbish / garbage chute (= from the upper floors of a high building)
2.
( informal ) = parachute
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WORD ORIGIN
sense 1 early 19th cent. (originally a North American usage): from French , fall (of water or rocks), from Old French cheoite , feminine past participle of cheoir to fall, from Latin cadere ; influenced by shoot .
sense 2 1920s: shortened form.