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sluice

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. (Science: 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.