\Sluice\, n. [OF. escluse, F. ['e]cluse, 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.

\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.