spillwayn.
/ˈspɪlweɪ/, U.S. /ˈspɪlˌweɪ/ 1.
a. A channel or slope built to carry away surplus water from a reservoir.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > liquid > action or process of extracting > [noun] > structure for receiving surplus liquid
spillway1889
spill1900
the world > the earth > water > rivers and streams > stream > [noun] > channel for conveyance of water > for surplus water > for overflow of reservoir, etc.
by-lead1885
by-wash1885
spillway1889
1889 Pall Mall Gaz. 26 June 1/3 The by-wash, or, as the Americans term it, the spill-way was utterly insufficient.
1892 Trans. Amer. Soc. Civil Eng. 26 640 The weir..consisted partly of stortebed or spillway.
1943 J. S. Huxley TVA xi. 83 The road bridge across the spillway..became part of a bold composition finishing on a strong horizontal line and broken only by the small scale tower of the lift shaft.
1962 R. B. Fuller Epic Poem on Industrialization 133 It was but a warning trickle down the spillway Of the cosmic power dam.
1979 United States 1980–1 (Penguin Travel Guides) 611 The world's largest concrete dam..has a spillway twice as high as Niagara Falls.
b. Physical Geography. A natural feature providing a channel for the overflow or escape of water from a lake.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > land > landscape > low land > hollow or depression > [noun] > notch or channel
rut?1611
sluit1818
overflow channel1863
overflow1883
swilly1899
spillway1914
flute1935
the world > the earth > water > rivers and streams > stream > [noun] > watercourse or channel > of overflow of lake
spillway1914
1914 David & Priestley Brit. Antarctic Exped. 1907–9 Rep. on Sci. Investigations I. i. 5 At intervals the horst is breached by valleys..which form outlets, ‘by-washes’, or ‘spillways’ for the surplus inland ice and snow.
1929 C. R. Longwell Pirsson's Textbk. Geol. (ed. 3) I. vii. 156 Each of the lakes..has streams or springs flowing into it, and an outlet or spillway determined by the lowest point in the rim of the containing basin.
1957 G. E. Hutchinson Treat. Limnol. I. i. i. 80 When the ice had fully retreated, spillways to the west were established.
1971 Nature 3 Sept. 34/2 The latter [sc. a gorge] may have operated for a time as a spillway from a glacial lake covering the upper part of the Chew valley.
2. attributive, as spillway dam.
ΚΠ
1913 P. A. M. Parker Control of Water vii. 415 We find in spillway dams, that such damage as occurs is apparently due to a partial vacuum induced by the flowing water.
1951 W. F. Heald Scenic Guide Oregon 11 The spillway dam, 1450 feet long crosses the north channel.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1986; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1889