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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