sluit S. African.
(sluːt)
Also slote, sloot, sloet.
[(Cape) Du. sloot ditch, = LG. sloot, OFris. slât (WFris. sleat).]
A channel, ditch, or gully, usually one formed by heavy rain and dry during the greater part of the year.
| α 1863 W. C. Baldwin Afr. Hunting 30 On coming into a mud sluit..the sudden check of the wagon threw me off. 1882 Times of Natal 8 June, About 3,900 yards of the sluits remain uncovered. 1896 Baden-Powell Matabele Campaign xvii, One evening I heard the old brute moving in the sluit, close to the camp. |
| β 1818 C. I. Latrobe Jrnl. Visit to S. Afr. x. 187 It has..water in abundance, brought by a slote, or canal, from a considerable distance. 1852 C. Barter Dorp & Veld iv. 33 Going one dark night to a friend's house, and keeping in the middle of the road to avoid the ‘sloots’, I stumbled over..a large black ox. 1862 L. Duff Gordon Let. 29 Dec. in F. Galton Vacation Tourists (1864) 157 There is no water but what runs down the streets in the sloot, a paved channel, which brings the water from the mountain and supplies the houses and gardens. 1889 F. Oates Matabele-Land 198 In crossing a small ‘sloot’ one of the wheels gave way. 1897 Anna Howarth Jan xxiv, Beds of wild yellow marigolds glorified every little hollow and sloet. |