Sluice (?), n. [OF. escluse, F. écluse, 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.