flume

English

A log flume in Sweden in 2010.

Etymology

From Middle English flum, from Old French flum, flun, from Latin flumen, from fluere (“to flow”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /fluːm/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -uːm

Noun

flume (plural flumes)

1. A ravine or gorge, usually one with water running through.
   • 1898, Recreation, page 31:

     Near the upper end of the portage the river falls 100 feet in as many rods, the water going at lightning speed through a natural flume in the rock. So rapid is the descent that the water in the flume is but 3 feet deep. We named this the "Devil's Slide."

2. An open channel or trough used to direct or divert liquids, especially to carry materials (logs, mined material, etc) or people (as a water slide), especially (but not always) one where the walls are raised above the surrounding terrain rather than recessed like a ditch.
   • 2001, Dale Samuelson, Wendy Yegoiants, The American Amusement Park, Motorbooks International, →ISBN, page 90:

     [...] the flumes are generally not dark rides and they run much faster. Two notable exceptions are the Timber Mountain […]

   • 2012 July 4, Susanna Moore, The Whiteness of Bones, Vintage, →ISBN, page 4:

     […] aqueducts, wooden half-barrels laid on their sides and elevated on rusty trestles, to rush the icy spring water down the mountainside to the fields. This system of irrigation through flumes was simple, but effective. There were miles of flumes and, […] the children of the island used the flumes as water slides. The location of certain especially fast and dangerous flumes was kept secret in families for generations and passed on in unquestioned solemnity . It was against the law to use the flumes as water slides […]

Derived terms

• log flume
• up the flume

Translations

ravine or gorge, usually with water

• Finnish: kuru (fi)
• Galician: corgo (gl) m

open channel

• Czech: žlab (cs) m
• Finnish: kanava (fi) (channel); kouru (fi), ränni (fi) (trough), uittoränni
• French: flume (fr) m
• Galician: canle (gl) f
• German: ^{(please verify)} Fluder (de) n

Verb

flume (third-person singular simple present flumes, present participle fluming, simple past and past participle flumed)

1. (transitive) To transport (logs of wood) by floating them along a water-filled channel or trough.

Translations

to transport logs on water

• Czech: plavit (cs) impf, splavit pf

Old Galician-Portuguese

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈflu.me/

Noun

flume m (plural flumes)

1. Alternative form of frume

Portuguese

Alternative forms

• flúmen

Etymology

From Old Galician-Portuguese flume, frume (“river”), from Latin flūmen (“river”), from fluere (“to flow”).

Cognate with English flume, Italian fiume and Occitan flume.

Pronunciation

 

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈflũ.mi/

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈflũ.mi/
  • (Southern Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈflu.me/

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˈflu.mɨ/

• Hyphenation: flu‧me

Noun

flume m (plural flumes)

1. (obsolete or poetic) river

   Synonym: rio