sluice.
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.
Meaning & usage
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.
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.
Where this word comes from
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.
To emit by, or as by, flood gates.
To wet copiously, as by opening a sluice
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).
To flow, pour.
To elide the complement in a coordinated wh-question. See sluicing.
Where this word comes from
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.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.