flume

plural flumes

1. A ravine or gorge, usually one with water running through.

   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."

   1898, Recreation, page 31

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.

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

   2001, Dale Samuelson, Wendy Yegoiants, The American Amusement Park, Motorbooks International, →ISBN, page 90

   1 more example

   […] 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[…]

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

present singular third person flumes · participle present fluming · participle past flumed · past flumed

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