sluice

American  

[sloos] / slus /

noun

1. an artificial channel for conducting water, often fitted with a gate sluice gate at the upper end for regulating the flow.

2. the body of water held back or controlled by a sluice gate.

3. any contrivance for regulating a flow from or into a receptacle.

4. a channel, especially one carrying off surplus water; drain.

5. a stream of surplus water.

6. an artificial stream or channel of water for moving solid matter.

   a lumbering sluice.

7. Also called sluice box.  Mining. a long, sloping trough or the like, with grooves on the bottom, into which water is directed to separate gold from gravel or sand.

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verb (used with object)

sluices, present (3rd person singular) sluiced, past participle, past sluicing present participle

1. to let out (water) by or as if by opening a sluice.

2. to drain (a pond, lake, etc.) by or as if by opening a sluice.

3. to open a sluice upon.

4. to flush or cleanse with a rush of water.

   to sluice the decks of a boat.

5. Mining. to wash in a sluice.

6. to send (logs) down a sluiceway.

verb (used without object)

sluices, present (3rd person singular) sluiced, past participle, past sluicing present participle

1. to flow or pour through or as if through a sluice.

sluice British  

/ sluːs /

noun

1. Also called: sluiceway.  a channel that carries a rapid current of water, esp one that has a sluicegate to control the flow

2. the body of water controlled by a sluicegate

3. See sluicegate

4. mining an inclined trough for washing ore, esp one having riffles on the bottom to trap particles

5. an artificial channel through which logs can be floated

6. informal a brief wash in running water

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verb

1. (tr) to draw out or drain (water, etc) from (a pond, etc) by means of a sluice

2. (tr) to wash or irrigate with a stream of water

3. (tr) mining to wash in a sluice

4. (tr) to send (logs, etc) down a sluice

5. (intr; often foll by away or out) (of water, etc) to run or flow from or as if from a sluice

6. (tr) to provide with a sluice

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• undersluice
  noun
• sluicelike
  adjective
• unsluiced
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Participles

• sluicing
  present
• sluiced
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• sluice
  simple
• sluices
  simple
• have sluiced
  perfect
• has sluiced
  perfect
• am sluicing
  progressive
• are sluicing
  progressive
• is sluicing
  progressive
• have been sluicing
  perfect progressive
• has been sluicing
  perfect progressive

Past

• sluiced
  simple
• had sluiced
  perfect
• was sluicing
  progressive
• were sluicing
  progressive
• had been sluicing
  perfect progressive

Future

• will sluice
  simple
• will have sluiced
  perfect
• will be sluicing
  progressive
• will have been sluicing
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of sluice

1300–50; Middle English scluse (noun) < Old French escluse < Late Latin exclūsa, a water barrier, noun use of feminine of Latin exclūsus, past participle of exclūdere to exclude

Explanation

Anything that resembles a water slide with a gate is a sluice — a narrow channel that controls water flow. The word originally comes from an old English word meaning a narrow channel that controlled a flow of water, usually to a watermill, and it still has that meaning. A sluice can also mean a splash — often with cold water and usually done with some vigor. Torture victims in movies sometimes have their faces sluiced to bring them round for further questioning.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

sluice sluices sluiced sluicing

In 2015, the Countryside Regeneration Trust raised money to restore the sluice gates.

From BBC ● Jun. 30, 2026

People on social media brandish gold-flecked pans and nuggets while showing off their equipment, ranging from old-fashioned picks to gold-separating sluice boxes.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 13, 2025

A combination of damaged sluice gates and high water might tear away a few gates, but would not be expected to rip apart so much of the dam, the professor said.

From New York Times ● Jun. 6, 2023

Satellite images showed water washing over damaged sluice gates.

From Washington Times ● Jun. 6, 2023

Then louder and faster, a driving torrent falling slantways from the slate sky, like water from a sluice.

From "Rebecca" by Daphne du Maurier

Sometimes they can be overgrown with vegetation or, in the case of drains and sluices, blocked.

From BBC ● Dec. 9, 2025

Over time, the Maya built canals, dams, sluices and berms to direct, store and transport water.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 9, 2023

Here’s one from “Yogo: The Great American Sapphire” by Stephen M. Voynick: In 1895 in Yogo Gulch, in central Montana, a gold prospector named Jake Hoover found blue stones collecting in his sluices.

From New York Times ● Dec. 5, 2022

The panel came back with a suggestion that the country create an elaborate infrastructure of dikes, dams, storm barriers and sluices so that future catastrophic flooding will not occur.

From Salon ● Sep. 1, 2021

Ben asked when they had broken out of Ravenel County and in a hauntingly crepuscular light were shooting across a causeway where the locks and sluices of an old rice plantation were still visible.

From "The Great Santini" by Pat Conroy

We sluiced into 2022 with another La Niña winter pattern bringing more snow and rain that lasted well into spring, yet again dampening gardeners’ spirits.

From Seattle Times ● Aug. 12, 2023

The trunk was worn from wear, and its fine end wobbled as he hauled the draggings back on board, which his companion then sluiced in a large sieve.

From Washington Post ● Mar. 18, 2022

The storm surge then sluiced over the sides of the bay and rapidly inundated the area with water.

From New York Times ● Sep. 14, 2018

If true, it would have largely defeated the purpose of requiring the keycard insertion—not to mention all those sluiced doors and biometrics and PIN codes—in the first place.

From Slate ● Dec. 21, 2016

Her hair sluiced rivers down her back and shoulders.

From "Strange the Dreamer" by Laini Taylor

Dump trucks carried the soil to an immense sluicing operation, where water from two reservoirs washed away dirt to reveal gold nuggets.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 6, 2025

Thawing permafrost is undermining Indigenous villages, summer sea ice is vanishing, and water is sluicing off Greenland’s ice sheet in record amounts.

From Science Magazine ● Dec. 14, 2021

Rather than sluicing rain away, as would happen on a concrete or asphalt sidewalk, the permeable gravel allows water to seep down.

From Washington Post ● Oct. 6, 2021

The renovation architects, ARM Architecture, settled on sluicing in small-footprint glass elevators on outside corners of each of the complex’s halls.

From New York Times ● Mar. 6, 2020

I spent a moment at Miss Maggie’s cistern, dusting myself off and sluicing rainwater over my head, before I met her at her door.

From "Beyond the Bright Sea" by Lauren Wolk