Sluice

sluice
    n 1: conduit that carries a rapid flow of water controlled by a
         sluicegate [syn: {sluice}, {sluiceway}, {penstock}]
    v 1: pour as if from a sluice; "An aggressive tide sluiced
         across the barrier reef" [syn: {sluice}, {sluice down}]
    2: irrigate with water from a sluice; "sluice the earth" [syn:
       {sluice}, {flush}]
    3: transport in or send down a sluice; "sluice logs"
    4: draw through a sluice; "sluice water"
    

Sluice \Sluice\, n. [OF. escluse, F. ['e]cluse, LL. exclusa,
   sclusa, from L. excludere, exclusum, to shut out: cf. D.
   sluis sluice, from the Old French. See {Exclude}.]
   1. An artifical passage for water, fitted with a valve or
      gate, as in a mill stream, for stopping or regulating the
      flow; also, a water gate or flood gate.
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   2. Hence, an opening or channel through which anything flows;
      a source of supply.
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            Each sluice of affluent fortune opened soon.
                                                  --Harte.
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            This home familiarity . . . opens the sluices of
            sensibility.                          --I. Taylor.
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   3. The stream flowing through a flood gate.
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   4. (Mining) A long box or trough through which water flows,
      -- used for washing auriferous earth.
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   {Sluice gate}, the sliding gate of a sluice.
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Sluice \Sluice\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Sluiced}; p. pr. & vb. n.
   {Sluicing}.]
   1. To emit by, or as by, flood gates. [R.] --Milton.
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   2. To wet copiously, as by opening a sluice; as, to sluice
      meadows. --Howitt.
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            He dried his neck and face, which he had been
            sluicing with cold water.             --De Quincey.
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   3. To wash with, or in, a stream of water running through a
      sluice; as, to sluice eart or gold dust in mining.
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163 Moby Thesaurus words for "sluice":
      aboideau, air lock, aqueduct, arroyo, avenue, baptize, bath, bathe,
      bed, blow out, blowhole, canal, channel, chute, cloaca,
      cloaca maxima, creek bed, culvert, debouch, deluge, dip, dock gate,
      donga, door, douche, douse, drain, drain out, drench, drown,
      dry bed, duck, dunk, egress, empty, emunctory, escape, estuary,
      exhaust, exit, find vent, float, flood, flood-hatch, floodgate,
      flow, flow on, flow out, flume, flush, flush out, gargle, gate,
      gulch, gully, gullyhole, gush, gush out, gutter, head gate,
      headchute, headrace, holystone, inundate, irrigate,
      irrigation ditch, jet, kennel, lather, launder, lave, lock,
      lock gate, loophole, mop, mop up, nullah, opening, out, outcome,
      outfall, outflow, outgate, outgo, outlet, outpour, penstock,
      piscina, pore, port, pour, pour on, pour out, race, rain, rinse,
      rinse out, ritually immerse, river bed, riverway, roll, run out,
      runnel, sally port, scour, scrub, scrub up, scupper, sewer,
      shampoo, shower, sink, sluice gate, sluice out, soak, soap, sough,
      spew out, spillbox, spillway, spiracle, sponge, spout, spout out,
      spurt, stream, stream bed, streamway, submerge, sump, surge, swab,
      swamp, swash, swash channel, syringe, tailrace, tap, tide gate,
      toivel, tub, vent, ventage, venthole, vomit forth, vomitory, wadi,
      wash, wash out, wash up, water carrier, water channel,
      water furrow, water gap, water gate, watercourse, waterway,
      waterworks, way out, weir, well, well out, whelm