Word of the Day December 30, 2017

sluice

(slo͞os)

n.

1.

a. An artificial channel for conducting water, with a valve or gate to regulate the flow: sluices connecting a reservoir with irrigated fields.
b. A valve or gate used in such a channel; a floodgate: open sluices to flood a dry dock. Also called sluice gate.
2. A body of water impounded behind a floodgate.
3. A sluiceway.
4. A long inclined trough, as for carrying logs or separating gold ore.
v. sluiced, sluic·ing, sluic·es
v.tr.

1. To flood or drench with or as if with a flow of released water.
2. To wash with water flowing in a sluice: sluicing sediment for gold.
3. To draw off or let out by a sluice: sluice floodwater.
4. To send (logs, for example) down a sluice.
v.intr.

To flow out from or as if from a sluice.

[Middle English scluse, from Old French escluse, from Late Latin exclūsa, from Latin, feminine past participle of exclūdere, to shut out; see exclude.]
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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Word of the Day December 23, 2017

brag·gart

(brăg′ərt)

n.

One given to loud, empty boasting; a bragger.

adj.

Boastful.

[French bragard, from braguer, to brag, perhaps from Middle English braggen; see brag.]
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

 

Word of the Day December 16, 2017

verbosity

adj.

Using or containing a great and usually an excessive number of words; wordy. See Synonyms at wordy.

[Middle English *verbous, from Latin verbōsus, from verbum, word; see verb.]

ver·bose′ly adv.
ver·bose′ness, ver·bos′i·ty (-bŏs′ĭ-tē) n