Link Centre Dictionary

stream

UK/ˈstɹiːm/ US/ˈstɹ̝̊ʷɪi̯m] ~ [ˈst̠ɹ̠̊˔ʷɪi̯m/ fairly common uk
noun (5) verb (5)

noun

1.

a natural body of running water flowing on or under the earth

Synonyms
2.

dominant course (suggestive of running water) of successive events or ideas

  • “two streams of development run through American history”
  • “stream of consciousness”
  • “the flow of thought”
  • “the current of history”
Synonyms
3.

a steady flow (usually from natural causes)

  • “the raft floated downstream on the current”
  • “he felt a stream of air”
Synonyms
4.
5.

something that resembles a flowing stream in moving continuously

  • “a stream of people emptied from the terminal”
  • “the museum had planned carefully for the flow of visitors”
Synonyms

verb

1.

to extend, wave or float outward, as if in the wind

  • “their manes streamed like stiff black pennants in the wind”
2.

exude profusely

  • “She was streaming with sweat”
  • “His nose streamed blood”
3.

move in large numbers

  • “people were pouring out of the theater”
  • “beggars pullulated in the plaza”
Synonyms
4.

rain heavily

  • “Put on your rain coat-- it”
Synonyms
5.

flow freely and abundantly

  • “Tears streamed down her face”
Synonyms

Origin

From Middle English streem, strem, from Old English strēam, from Proto-West Germanic *straum, from Proto-Germanic *straumaz (“stream”), from Proto-Indo-European *srowmos (“river”), from Proto-Indo-European *srew- (“to flow”). Doublet of rheum. Cognate with Scots strem, streme, streym (“stream, river”), North Frisian Stroom, struum (“stream”), West Frisian stream (“stream”), Low German Stroom (“stream”), Dutch stroom (“current, flow, stream”), German Strom (“current, stream”), Danish and Norwegian Bokmål strøm (“current, stream, flow”), Norwegian Nynorsk straum (“current, stream, flow”), Swedish ström (“current, stream, flow”), Faroese streymur (“stream”), Icelandic straumur (“current, stream, torrent, flood”), Ancient Greek ῥεῦμα (rheûma, “stream, flow”), Lithuanian srovė (“current, stream”) Polish strumień (“stream”), Welsh ffrwd (“stream, current”), Scottish Gaelic sruth (“stream”).

Phrases

  • activity stream
  • chalk stream
  • change horses in mid-stream
  • cross the streams
  • data stream
  • first order stream
  • float with the stream
  • Gulf Stream
  • stream the buoy

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

Narrower terms

Part of

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.