- pour
- pour vb Pour, stream, gush, sluice are comparable when they mean to send forth or cause to send forth copiously.Pour usually suggests an abundant emission of what is sent forth{
it never rains but it pours
}{pour men and money into the Netherlands— Barr
}{pour forth tributes
}{letters poured in in answer to his inquiry
}but it sometimes implies a coming in a course or stream, usually a continuous stream (as from a mouth, a spout, an orifice, or a wound){crowds poured from every exit
}{pour coffee from a pot
}{ranges . . . pour rivers down to the coast— M. Barnard Eldershaw
}Stream suggests a flow that is circumscribed (as by issuance through a course or from an opening){tears streamed from her eyes
}{light streamed through the open door
}{hundreds of happy workers streaming in through the wide wrought iron gates— Dahl
}though it also may connote abundance or continuousness in that flow{the guests streamed past, shaking hands, exchanging greetings— Styron
}Gush implies a sudden and copious emission of or as if of something released from confinement; it often connotes a coming in a jet or in spurts{blood gushed from the wound
}{he . . . suddenly gushed forth in streams of wondrous eloquence— Stephen
}{beer began to gush ... in a white cascade— Pynchon
}Sluice implies the operation of something like a sluice for the regulation or control of the flow of water; therefore the verb sluice suggests a sending of water or liquid over a surface in an abundant stream{water so fresh .. . never sluiced parched throats before— Thackeray
}{Mowgli, with the rain sluicing over his bare shoulders— Kipling
}
New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.
