sluice

1 of 2

noun

ˈslüs 

1

a

: an artificial passage for water (as in a millstream) fitted with a valve or gate for stopping or regulating flow

b

: a body of water pent up behind a floodgate

2

: a dock gate : floodgate

3

a

: a stream flowing through a floodgate

b

: a channel to drain or carry off surplus water

4

: a long inclined trough usually on the ground

especially : such a contrivance paved usually with riffles to hold quicksilver for catching gold

sluice

2 of 2

verb

sluiced; sluicing

transitive verb

1

: to draw off by or through a sluice

2

a

: to wash with or in water running through or from a sluice

b

: to drench with a sudden flow : flush

3

: to transport (logs) in a sluice

intransitive verb

: to pour as if from a sluice

Synonyms

Verb

• flush
• irrigate
• rinse
• wash
• wash out

Examples of sluice in a Sentence

Verb

he sluiced the gutters with lots of water in order to make sure they were clear

Recent Examples on the Web

Noun

What looked in early November like dry, barren land of baobab and thorny acacia was regenerated by annual summertime overflows over the floodplain, the eponymous waalo, and filled the sluices cut into the earth to deliver water to the fields. —J.r. Patterson, Condé Nast Traveler, 11 Dec. 2023

The advanced technology along with deep learning algorithms is in this way helping to throw open the sluice gates to data thus empowering everyone to engage with it and better understand it. —Nitin Rakesh, Forbes, 23 Feb. 2024

Verb

Spanish cinema is sluiced by a winning sense of genre, movies hitting or very often subverting genre tropes. —John Hopewell, Variety, 8 Mar. 2024

An erotic craving is inextricable from the ferment that foams up when oneself is sluiced into another. —Becca Rothfeld, The New Yorker, 17 Feb. 2024

Word History

Etymology

Noun

Middle English sluse, alteration of scluse, from Anglo-French escluse, from Late Latin exclusa, from Latin, feminine of exclusus, past participle of excludere to exclude

First Known Use

Noun

15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Verb

1596, in the meaning defined at transitive sense 1

Kids Definition

sluice

1 of 2 noun

ˈslüs 

1

: an artificial passage for water with a gate for controlling its flow or changing its direction

2

: a body of water held back by a gate or a stream flowing through a gate

3

: a device (as a floodgate) for controlling the flow of water

4

: a channel that carries off surplus water

5

: a long sloping trough (as for floating logs to a sawmill)

sluice

2 of 2 verb

sluiced; sluicing

1

: to draw off by or through a sluice

2

a

: to wash with or in water running through or from a sluice

b

: drench, flush