n. [ OF. escluse, F. écluse, LL. exclusa, sclusa, from L. excludere, exclusum, to shut out: cf. D. sluis sluice, from the Old French. See Exclude. ] 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 or flood gate. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Hence, an opening or channel through which anything flows; a source of supply. [ 1913 Webster ]

Each sluice of affluent fortune opened soon. Harte. [ 1913 Webster ]

This home familiarity . . . opens the sluices of sensibility. I. Taylor. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. The stream flowing through a flood gate. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. (Mining) A long box or trough through which water flows, -- used for washing auriferous earth. [ 1913 Webster ]

Sluice gate, the sliding gate of a sluice. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Sluiced p. pr. & vb. n. Sluicing ] 1. To emit by, or as by, flood gates. [ R. ] Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To wet copiously, as by opening a sluice; as, to sluice meadows. Howitt. [ 1913 Webster ]

He dried his neck and face, which he had been sluicing with cold water. De Quincey. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To wash with, or in, a stream of water running through a sluice; as, to sluice eart or gold dust in mining. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. An artificial channel into which water is let by a sluice; specifically, a trough constructed over the bed of a stream, so that logs, lumber, or rubbish can be floated down to some convenient place of delivery. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Falling copiously or in streams, as from a sluice. [ 1913 Webster ]

And oft whole sheets descend of sluicy rain. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ 1st pref. un- + sluice. ] To sluice; to open the sluice or sluices of; to let flow; to discharge. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]