From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishsluicesluice1 /sluːs/ noun [countable] TTWa passage for water to flow through, with a special gate which can be opened or closed to control it
Examples from the Corpus
sluice• A filled-in marsh is a sluice for sediment.• Its sluices could be used to flood the whole area if it became infested with invading forces.• Just opposite the point where the brook which runs past Lawrence's old home joins the Erewash itself stands a mill sluice.• It is only responsible for the reservoir itself and for the sluice gates, says Maxwell.• The moment the prison doors closed behind Gandhi the sluice gates of violence opened.• At last the sluice gates were lowered.• The defeat opened the sluice gates and venom flowed through in raging torrents.• The sluice gates are lifted by chains on old fashioned rollers.sluicesluice2 verb 1 [transitive]WASH to wash something with a lot of watersluice something out/down He was sluicing down the table and the floor.2 [intransitive always + adverb/preposition]POUR if water sluices somewhere, a large amount of it suddenly flows there→ See Verb tableExamples from the Corpus
sluice• I follow her in, sluice around, dry up, come and fetch her.• Everything was hygienically sluiced away by the ocean.• City sweepers sluice down Telegraph Street every morning.• An orderly was sluicing down the metal table and the floor.• The water went sluicing out of the house into the garden.• Then the inner cavities were sluiced out with various aromatic and disinfecting fluids prior to sewing up.• Twenty-Five A sheen of seawater sluiced the cat's back.• He smiled without humour when Frankie sucked at the soap-filled cloth in order to sluice the taste of rancid beck-water from his mouth.Origin sluice1 (1300-1400) Old French escluse, from Late Latin exclusa, from Latin excludere; → EXCLUDE 