runlet

run·let
R1U1N1L1E1T1
US, UK/ˈɹʌnlət/

noun

A small brook or stream.

Scrabble 6

Meanings

runlet1

nounrunlet (plural runlets)

plural runlets

  1. A small brook or stream.

    She followed the dry runlet to where a jutting shoulder formed a nook matted with briars.

    1931 February 9, William Faulkner, Sanctuary, New York, N.Y.: Jonathan Cape & Harrison Smith, →OCLC
    1 more example

    The biographer, especially of a literary man, need only mark the main currents of tendency, without being officious to trace out to its marshy source every runlet that has cast in its tiny pitcherful with the rest.

    1876, James Russell Lowell, “Milton”, in Among My Books. Second Series., Boston, Mass.: James R[ipley] Osgood and Company, late Ticknor & Fields, and Fields, Osgood, & Co., →OCLC, page 255

runlet2

nounrunlet (plural runlets)

plural runlets · alternative rundlet

  1. archaicA wine measure, equivalent to 18 gallons.

    […]our cellarer shall have orders to deliver to thee a butt of sack, a runlet of Malvesie, and three hogsheads of ale of the first strike, yearly—If that will not quench thy thirst, thou must come to court, and become acquainted with my butler.

    1819 December 20 (indicated as 1820), Walter Scott, chapter X, in Ivanhoe; a Romance. […], volume III, Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC, pages 266–267

Synonyms & antonyms

Also see

Origin

runlet · noun

  1. Old Frenchrondelet“roundlet”
  2. Middle Englishroundelet
  3. Englishrunlet

From Middle English roundelet, from Old French rondelet (“roundlet”). More at roundlet.

Full word history & related roots →

Rhymes & wordplay

Rhymes with runlet

All rhymes →
Cite this entry
APA

runlet. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/runlet

MLA

“runlet.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/runlet. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “runlet,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/runlet.

Source: runlet on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.