▪ I. flume, n.
(fluːm)
Forms: 2–6 flum, 3 Orm. flumm, (3 flun), 3–4 flym, 3–5 flumme, 3–6 flom(e, 4–5 flomme, 5 floum, 8–9 floom, 4– flume. See also fleam.
[a. OF. flum, flun = Pr. flum, It. fiume:—L. flūmen river, f. fluĕre to flow.]
† 1. A stream, a river; also, water. Obs.
| c 1175 Lamb. Hom. 141 Ine flum iordan. a 1300 Cursor M. 1035 Þis flummes four þat þar biginnes, thoru out all oþer contres rinnes. a 1300 Magdalena 427 in Horstmann Alteng. Leg. 158 To þe flym Jordan. c 1330 R. Brunnne Chron. (1810) 186 At þat ilk flom Richard gaf bataile. c 1450 Mirour Saluacioun 1406 There bene baptismes thre Off fflvmme, of flavme, of blode. 1535 Stewart Cron. Scot. II. 450 All into that flume Tha drownit ilkone becaus tha culd not swym. 1652 Gaule Magastrom. 247 A deep flume, which was called the water of Juno. |
2. A mill-tail. Cf. fleam n.2 2.
| 1855 in Clarke Dict. |
3. U.S., etc. a. An artificial channel for a stream of water to be applied to some industrial use.
| 1784 J. Belknap Tour to White Mts. (1876) 17 One [stream] is so narrow as exactly to resemble a flume, and goes by that name. 1798 Root Amer. Law Rep. I. 359 Laid the bottom of the floom to the grist mill..about four feet lower than the saw mill. 1862 B. Taylor Home & Abroad Ser. ii. ii. §6. 126 Wooden flumes, raised on tall tressels, brought water from some reservoir above to the diggings. 1882 Harper's Mag. Nov. 865 A curious V shaped wooden aqueduct or flume. 1940 Chambers's Techn. Dict. 343/2 Flume, a metal chute used for the distribution of concrete from a placing plant. 1957 N.Z. Timber Jrnl. Mar. 52/2 Flume, an inclined trough with running water for transporting logs. 1959 B.S.I. News Nov. 25 Notches, weirs and flumes for flow measurement. |
b. A deep narrow channel or ravine with a stream running through it.
| 1792 J. Belknap Hist. New Hampsh. III. 52 Two streams..one of which descends in a trench two feet wide, and is called the flume, from the near resemblance which it bears to an artificial flume. 1841 C. T. Jackson Geol. New Hampsh. 97 It is not practicable to walk in the bed of the flume. 1889 J. D. Whitney United States 222 Flume..as applied in the United States, and chiefly in the White Mountains, means a narrow passage or defile between nearly perpendicular rocks, through which runs a stream. |
c. U.S. slang. to go or be up the flume: to ‘come to grief’, ‘be done for’; to die.
| 1865 Eastern Slope (Washoe, Nev.) 23 Dec. 3/1 The great Stockholder..has in the classic language of the mines, ‘gone up the flume’. 1882 Mark Twain [Clemens] Stolen White Eleph. etc. 97 Well, then, that idea's up the flume. 1888 Longm. Mag. XIII. 48 It's no good wishing—he's gone up the flume. |
4. Comb., as flume-water; flume-car (see quot.).
| 1884 Knight Dict. Mech. IV. 350/1 *Flume car, a car to travel in a flume; wheels rest on the sides of the flume and the water runs a paddle wheel. 1897 B. Harraden Hilda Strafford 59, I wish I hadn't filled up my reservoir so full with *flume-water. |
[3.] [a.] Add to def: esp. (in Forestry), for the transport of logs or timber. Cf. log flume (a) s.v. *log n.1 10. (Earlier and further examples.)
| 1748 Duxbury (Mass.) Rec. (1893) 292 Isaac Partridge being obliged to make and maintain a good floom for term of Twenty years next coming, for the stream to pass through. 1894 J. Nisbet Brown's Forester (ed. 6) II. xi. 250 In California, throughout the Rocky Mountain tracts, enormous quantities of timber are conveyed for immense distances in flumes worked by water power. 1976 S. Conway Logging Pract. xvii. 337 There are some other types of log transportation, such as the chute and the flume, which are no longer or very little used... In a flume, a log rides a sheet of water at speeds up to 100 miles per hour. |
d. A water-chute used as a ride at a fairground or amusement park; a water-slide.
| [1972: see log flume s.v. *log n.1 10.] 1978 Detroit Free Press 16 Apr. 6b/1 There's a flume ride, motorcycle racing course,..Western streets and more. 1985 Punch 16 Oct. 97/1 The ‘Wild Waters’ flume at Richmond-upon-Thames, where rapid transit through a giant convoluted colon into a splashy receptacle may be enjoyed several times over in a 40-minutes session for {pstlg}2.50. The flume..is a closed waterslide. 1989 Holiday Which? Sept. 162/3 Supervision is particularly important at pools with slides and flumes. |
▪ II. flume, v.
(fluːm)
[f. prec. n.]
1. intr. To build a flume or artificial channel for a water-course.
| 1855 in Clarke Dict. 1883 Burton & Cameron Gold Coast II. xvi. 116 The hydraulic system of sluicing and fluming. |
2. trans. To convey (or bring in) down a flume.
| 1875 I. L. Bird Sandwich Isl. (1880) 76 The cane is being flumed in with great rapidity. |
3. (See quot.)
| 1876 Whitney in Encycl. Brit. IV. 701 The rivers..were ‘flumed’—that is, the water was taken out of the natural channel by means of wooden flumes. |
Hence ˈfluming vbl. n.; also concr. = material composing a flume.
| 1851 San Francisco Picayune 23 Sept. 2/5 There is another fluming company..that will commence operations this week. 1869 Trans. N.Z. Inst. II. 372 [The oldest drifts] can only be worked by bringing water to bear on them by a system of ‘fluming’. 1879 R. J. Atcherley Boerland 173 The unsightly fluming and other erections which continually meet the eye. |