stream
/ˈstɹiːm/ noun, verb, proper noun
Forms streams streaming streamed
- noun A small river; a large creek; a body of moving water confined by banks.
- noun (sciences, umbrella term) All moving waters.
- noun A thin connected passing of a liquid through a lighter gas (e.g. air). “He poured the milk in a thin stream from the jug to the glass.”
- noun Current, the force of moving water. “to swim against the stream”
- noun Any steady flow or succession of material, such as water, air, radio signal or words. “Her constant nagging was to him a stream of abuse.”
- noun (figurative) A particular path, channel, division, or way of proceeding. “Haredi Judaism is a stream of Orthodox Judaism characterized by rejection of modern secular culture.”
- noun (computing) A source or repository of data that can be read or written only sequentially. “In the context of computer science, lexical analysis can be defined as the conversion of a stream of characters to a stream of meaningful tokens.”
- noun An instance of streaming digital data.
- verb (intransitive) To flow in a continuous or steady manner, like a liquid.
- verb (intransitive) To extend; to stretch out with a wavy motion; to float in the wind. “A flag streams in the wind.”
- verb (transitive) To discharge in a stream. “The soldier's wound was streaming blood.”
- verb (Internet) To push continuous data (e.g. music) from a server to a client computer while it is being used (played) on the client.
- verb (Internet) To livestream.
- proper noun A surname.
Synonyms
beck brook burn watercourse flow current pour swarm teem pullulate pelt rain cats and dogs rain buckets well out
Etymology
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”).
Webster’s 1913
- noun A current water or other fluid; a liquid flowing continuously in a line or course, either on the earth, as a river, brook, etc., or from a vessel, reservoir, or fountain; specifically, any course of running water; as, many streams are blended in the Mississippi; gas and steam came from the earth in streams; a stream of molten lead from a furnace; a stream of lava from a volcano.
- noun A beam or ray of light. "Sun streams." Chaucer.
- verb To issue or flow in a stream; to flow freely or in a current, as a fluid or whatever is likened to fluids; as, tears streamed from her eyes.
- verb To pour out, or emit, a stream or streams.
Etymology [AS. streám; akin to OFries. stram, OS. strom, D. stroom, G. strom, OHG. stroum, str, Dan. & Sw. ström, Icel. straumr, Ir. sroth, Lith. srove, Russ. struia, Gr. sru. *174. Cf. Catarrh, Diarrhea, Rheum, Rhythm.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “stream”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details