SLUICE

sluice|sluce (2). Sluice, or Sluce, n. a vent for water, lock, floodgate

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Sluice (?), 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. 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.
2. 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. 3. The stream flowing through a flood gate.
4. 4. (Mining) A long box or trough through which water flows, — used for washing auriferous earth.
Sluice gate, the sliding gate of a sluice.