| 1. | a body of water flowing in a channel or watercourse, as a river, rivulet, or brook. |
| 2. | a steady current in water, as in a river or the ocean: to row against the stream; the Gulf Stream. |
| 3. | any flow of water or other liquid or fluid: streams of blood. |
| 4. | a current or flow of air, gas, or the like. |
| 5. | a beam or trail of light: A stream of moonlight fell from the clouds. |
| 6. | a continuous flow or succession of anything: a stream of words. |
| 7. | prevailing direction; drift: the stream of opinion. |
| 8. | to flow, pass, or issue in a stream, as water, tears, or blood. |
| 9. | to send forth or throw off a stream; run or flow (often fol. by with): eyes streaming with tears. |
| 10. | to extend in a beam or in rays, as light: Sunlight streamed in through the windows. |
| 11. | to move or proceed continuously like a flowing stream, as a procession. |
| 12. | to wave or float outward, as a flag in the wind. |
| 13. | to hang in a loose, flowing manner, as long hair. |
| 14. | to send forth or discharge in a stream: The wound streamed blood. |
| 15. | to cause to stream or float outward, as a flag. |
| 16. | Nautical. to place (an object) in the water at the end of a line attached to a vessel. |
| 17. | on stream, in or into operation: The factory will be on stream in a month. |

stream (strēm) n.
v. intr.
[Middle English streme, from Old English strēam; see sreu- in Indo-European roots.] stream'y adj. |
streaming stream·ing (strē'mĭng)
n.
Streaming movement.
streaming communications
Playing sound or video in real time as it is downloaded over the Internet as opposed to storing it in a local file first. A plug-in to a web browser such as Netscape Navigator decompresses and plays the data as it is transferred to your computer over the World-Wide Web. Streaming audio or video avoids the delay entailed in downloading an entire file and then playing it with a helper application. Streaming requires a fast connection and a computer powerful enough to execute the decompression algorithm in real time.
(1996-11-06)