Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Sluice
Sluice
,Noun.
[OF.
escluse
, F. écluse
, 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.
2.
Hence, an opening or channel through which anything flows; a source of supply.
Each
sluice
of affluent fortune opened soon. Harte.
This home familiarity . . . opens the
sluices
of sensibility. I. Taylor.
3.
The stream flowing through a flood gate.
4.
(Mining)
A long box or trough through which water flows, – used for washing auriferous earth.
Sluice gate
, the sliding gate of a sluice.
Sluice
,Verb.
T.
[
imp. & p. p.
Sluiced
; p. pr. & vb. n.
Sluicing
.] 1.
To emit by, or as by, flood gates.
[R.]
Milton.
2.
To wet copiously, as by opening a sluice;
as, to
. sluice
meadowsHowitt.
He dried his neck and face, which he had been
sluicing
with cold water. De Quincey.
3.
To wash with, or in, a stream of water running through a sluice;
as, to
. sluice
eart or gold dust in miningWebster 1828 Edition
Sluice
SLUICE
, SLUSE,Noun.
1.
The stream of water issuing through a flood-gate; or the gate itself. If the word had its origin in shutting; it denoted the frame of boards or planks which closes the opening of a mill dam; but I believe it is applied to the stream, the gate and channel. It is a common saying, that a rapid stream runs like a sluse.2.
An opening; a source of supply; that through which any thing flows. Each sluice of affluent fortune open'd soon.