dictionary help| sluice | medical dictionary |
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 of 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. <chemical>
A long box or trough through which water flows, used for washing auriferous earth. Sluice gate, the sliding gate of a sluice.
Origin: OF. Escluse, F. Ecluse, LL. Exclusa, sclusa, from L. Excludere, exclusum, to shut out: cf. D. Sluis sluice, from the Old French. See Exclude.
(01 Mar 1998)
sludged blood, slug, sluggish layer, slugworm < Prev | Next > sluiceway, slum, slur, slurp
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