flume

[ floom ]
See synonyms for flume on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. a deep narrow passage or mountain ravine with a stream flowing through it, often with great force: Hikers are warned to stay well clear of the flumes, especially during the spring thaw.

  2. an artificial channel or trough for conducting water, as one used to transport logs or provide water power.

  1. 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.

verb (used with object),flumed, flum·ing.
  1. to transport in a flume.

  2. to divert (a stream) by a flume.

Origin of flume

1
First recorded in 1125–75; Middle English flum, from Old French, ultimately from Latin flūmen “river, stream”

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use flume in a sentence

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

    Desert Conquest | A. M. Chisholm
  • Halfway to the river they came upon the first evidence of dynamite in the form of a bit of wrecked fluming.

    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.

    The Shirley Letters from California Mines in 1851-52 | Louise Amelia Knapp Smith Clappe
  • There is a gigantic project now on the tapis, of fluming the entire river for many miles, commencing a little above Rich Bar.

    The Shirley Letters from California Mines in 1851-52 | Louise Amelia Knapp Smith Clappe

British Dictionary definitions for flume

flume

/ (fluːm) /


noun
  1. a ravine through which a stream flows

  2. a narrow artificial channel made for providing water for power, floating logs, etc

  1. 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

verb
  1. (tr) to transport (logs) in a flume

Origin of flume

1
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