/ 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.
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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
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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.