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flume

[floom]
noun
  1. a deep narrow defile containing a mountain stream or torrent.
  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, flum·ing.
  1. to transport in a flume.
  2. to divert (a stream) by a flume.
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Origin of flume

1125–75; Middle English flum < Old French ≪ Latin flūmen stream
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for fluming

Historical Examples

  • Fluming water for poultry is, like irrigation, a community project.

    The Dollar Hen

    Milo M. Hastings

  • Now trestle and fluming lay in bent, rent, and riven ruin at the bottom of the coulée.

    Desert Conquest

    A. M. Chisholm

  • The simplest way to arrange this will be by wooden surface troughs as used in the fluming scheme.

    The Dollar Hen

    Milo M. Hastings

  • Sometimes these fluming companies are eminently successful; at others, their operations are a dead failure.

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

British Dictionary definitions for fluming

flume

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
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Word Origin

C12: from Old French flum, ultimately from Latin flūmen stream, from fluere to flow
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for fluming

flume

n.

late 12c., "stream," from Old French flum "running water, stream, river," from Latin flumen "flood, stream, running water," from fluere "to flow" (see fluent). In U.S., used especially of artificial streams channeled for some industrial purpose.

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper