sluice means an artificial passage for water, fitted with a valve or gate, for example in a canal lock or a mill stream, for stopping or regulating the flow.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, sluice ranks #2,357 of 14,297 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words, #2,592 of 14,423 for Most Sublime Words, #7,084 of 14,414 for Most Elegant Words, #7,180 of 14,444 for Most Exacting Words.
sluice is pronounced /sluːs/.
Why “sluice” is a great word
An artificial channel for water, equipped with a valve or gate to stop or regulate its flow. Its etymology—from Middle English *sluse*, alteration of *scluse*, from Anglo-Norman *escluse* ("sluice, floodgate"), from Late Latin *exclusa* ("extrusion, gate"), from Latin *exclūsus*, past participle of *exclūdō* ("to shut out, to exclude")—reveals its core function as a controlled exclusion. Unlike a "floodgate" (which is the barrier alone) or a "conduit" (a mere passive passage), a sluice is the entire deliberate apparatus of constraint and release. It is the cold, metallic groan of a lifted gate, the sudden muscular rush of pent-up water scouring the canal bed, and the precise, shining sheet cascading over a mill's wooden lip—a monument to our fleeting dominion over fluid, transient force.
Etymology
From Middle English sluse, alteration of scluse, from Anglo-Norman escluse (“sluice, floodgate”), from Late Latin exclusa (“extrusion, gate”), from Latin exclūsus, form of exclūdō (“to shut out, to exclude”) (English exclude). Cognate to Dutch sluis.
noun
- An artificial passage for water, fitted with a valve or gate, for example in a canal lock or a mill stream, for stopping or regulating the flow.
- A water gate or floodgate.
- Hence, an opening or channel through which anything flows; a source of supply.“At leaſt, I'm ſure I can fiſh it out of her. She's the very Sluce to her Lady's Secrets;—'Tis but ſetting her Mill agoing, and I can drein her of 'em all.”
- The stream flowing through a floodgate.
- A long box or trough through which water flows, used for washing auriferous earth.
- An instance of wh-stranding ellipsis, or sluicing.
verb
- To emit by, or as by, flood gates.“Nigh on the plain, in many cells prepared, / That underneath had veins of liquid fire / Sluiced from the lake, a second multitude / With wondrous art founded the massy ore, / Severing each kind, and scummed the bullion-dross.”
- To wet copiously, as by opening a sluice“Nine - mile Creek has been dug out again and again , and has been sluiced three times”
- To wash with, or in, a stream of water running through a sluice.“to sluice earth or gold dust in a sluice box in placer mining”
- To wash (down or out).“[…] he did plot the Duke of Gloucester's death, / Suggest his soon-believing adversaries, / And consequently, like a traitor coward, / Sluiced out his innocent soul through streams of blood”
- To flow, pour.“In the trough behind the white wave / Helen shook her dark head, the water sluiced from her shoulders / And rose-tipped breasts.”
- To elide the complement in a coordinated wh-question. See sluicing.
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.
- outfall 81% match — To burst forth, as upon an enemy; make a sally. vs sluice →
- millpond 81% match — A pond or reservoir produced by damming a river or stream in order to provide a steady source of water for a millrace. vs sluice →
- causeway 81% match — A road that is raised so as to be above water, marshland, and similar low-lying obstacles, which in some cases may flood periodically (e.g. due to tides). Originally causeways were much like dykes, generally pierced to let water through, whereas many modern causeways are more like bridges or viaducts. vs sluice →
- portcullis 80% match — A gate in the form of a grating which is lowered into place at the gateway of a castle, a fort, etc. vs sluice →
- lockhouse 80% match — A house, often small, beside a canal or river lock, usually occupied by the lockkeeper (locktender) in centuries past, and in some places still so occupied today. vs sluice →
- tributary 80% match — A natural water stream that flows into a larger river or other body of water. vs sluice →
- runnel 80% match — A small stream, a rivulet. vs sluice →
- staunch 79% match — Not permitting water or some other liquid to escape or penetrate; watertight. vs sluice →