Sluice, v. t. [imp. & p.
p. Sluiced (?); p. pr. & vb. n.
Sluicing (?).] 1. To emit by, or as by,
flood gates. [R.] Milton.
2. To wet copiously, as by opening a sluice;
as, to sluice meadows. Howitt.
He dried his neck and face, which he had been
sluicing with cold water.
De Quincey.
3. To wash with, or in, a stream of water
running through a sluice; as, to sluice eart or gold dust in
mining.
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.
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. 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. The stream flowing through a flood
gate.
4. (Mining) A long box or trough
through which water flows, -- used for washing auriferous
earth.
Sluice gate, the sliding gate of a
sluice.