Definition of "sluice" [sluice]

• An artificial channel for conducting water, with a valve or gate to regulate the flow: sluices connecting a reservoir with irrigated fields. (noun)
• A valve or gate used in such a channel; a floodgate: open sluices to flood a dry dock. Also called sluice gate. (noun)
• A body of water impounded behind a floodgate. (noun)
• A sluiceway. (noun)
• A long inclined trough, as for carrying logs or separating gold ore. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Call you at half after five in the mornin ', an' you get up an 'take a' sluice '-- if there's any soap."
• "SLUICE ROBBER: one way of separating gold from the gravel and sand in which it is found is to put the mixture into a slanting trough, called a sluice, through which water is run."
• "A kind of broad trough, running in a slanting direction and called a sluice, was on one side, and into this a quantity of wash was put, and a tap at the top turned on, which caused the water to wash the dirt down the sluice."