flume

American  

[floom] / flum /

noun

1. a deep narrow passage or mountain ravine with a stream flowing through it, often with great force.

   Hikers are warned to stay well clear of the flumes, especially during the spring thaw.

2. an artificial channel or trough for conducting water, as one used to transport logs or provide water power.

3. an amusement park ride in which passengers are carried in a boatlike or loglike conveyance through a narrow, water-filled chute or over a water slide.

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verb (used with object)

flumed, fluming

1. to transport in a flume.

2. to divert (a stream) by a flume.

flume British  

/ fluːm /

noun

1. a ravine through which a stream flows

2. a narrow artificial channel made for providing water for power, floating logs, etc

3. a slide in the form of a long and winding tube with a stream of water running through it that descends into a purpose-built pool

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verb

1. (tr) to transport (logs) in a flume

Etymology

Origin of flume

First recorded in 1125–75; Middle English flum, from Old French, ultimately from Latin flūmen “river, stream”

Explanation

A flume is a raised channel or chute that has water flowing through it. Flumes are generally used to transport things like logs, or to measure the flow of water. The oldest flumes were built of wood, and were basically liquid conveyer belts that moved lumber and logs in a sawmill along the surface of the water. These flumes were safer than previous methods of transporting wood down steep mountains, such as by horse-drawn carriages. Amusement parks frequently feature rides modeled after these wooden flumes, in which riders sit in boats resembling hollow logs, propelled along a flume by flowing water.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

flume flumed fluming

Gilligan, a judge on popular ITV series The Masked Singer, recalled spending days on the beach and riding the log flume at the fun park as well playing the penny arcade machines.

From BBC ● Aug. 8, 2026

In 2000, a 37-year-old man died after he climbed out of a log flume on the Splash Mountain ride at the Magic Kingdom in Florida and was struck by another passenger boat.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 24, 2026

This was a commencement, not a log flume.

From Slate ● May 27, 2025

Following the success of Pirates of the Caribbean, Nunis wanted a log flume attraction that would serve as the next big water ride at Disneyland.

From Seattle Times ● Dec. 13, 2023

A flume of vomit arched onto the floor.

From "Three Little Words: A Memoir" by Ashley Rhodes-Courter

Like the Unitarians, they poked for gulls' eggs in the Island's scarred, flumed granite listened to lectures, held seminars and attended services in the little Gosport Meeting House.

From Time Magazine Archive

The alluvials in the bottoms should here prove unusually rich, and means might be adopted by which they should be raised mechanically and then flumed down again.

From To The Gold Coast for Gold, Vol. II A Personal Narrative by Sir Richard Francis Burton

Unfortunately most of the Fresno grove has been cut and flumed down to the railroad near Madera.

From The Yosemite by John Muir

The cane is being flumed in with great rapidity, and the factory is working till late at night. 

From The Hawaiian Archipelago by Isabella L. (Isabella Lucy) Bird

Along a narrowing arm of the mountain, a deep canyon flumed a rushing torrent of icy water from a small glacier on our right.

From Alaska Days with John Muir by Samual Hall Young

Leingang, who had been at Dixson’s lab since 2016, says he had become increasingly suspicious of her findings, in part because she usually collected her fluming data alone.

From Science Magazine ● Aug. 9, 2022

One former colleague became “slowly more suspicious,” especially about the fluming studies, and began to monitor them covertly.

From Science Magazine ● May 6, 2021

"When you going to start fluming 'em down?"

From The Rules of the Game by Stewart Edward White

There is a gigantic project now on the tapis, of fluming the entire river for many miles, commencing a little above Rich Bar.

From The Shirley Letters from California Mines in 1851-52 by Louise Amelia Knapp Smith Clappe

There were sidehills, which are dangerous because they have an annoying habit of sliding when water-soaked, and gulches which would necessitate fluming.

From The Land of Strong Men by A. M. (Arthur Murray) Chisholm