stream

[streem] /strim/
noun
1.
a body of water flowing in a channel or watercourse, as a river, rivulet, or brook.
Synonyms: rill, run, streamlet, runnel.
2.
a steady current in water, as in a river or the ocean: to row against the stream;
the Gulf Stream.
Synonyms: flow, tide.
3.
any flow of water or other liquid or fluid:
streams of blood.
4.
a current or flow of air, gas, or the like.
5.
a beam or trail of light:
A stream of moonlight fell from the clouds.
6.
a continuous flow or succession of anything:
a stream of words.
Synonyms: torrent, rush.
7.
prevailing direction; drift:
the stream of opinion.
8.
Digital Technology. a flow of data, as an audio broadcast, a movie, or live video, transmitted smoothly and continuously from a source to a computer, mobile device, etc.
verb (used without object)
9.
to flow, pass, or issue in a stream, as water, tears, or blood.
Synonyms: pour.
10.
to send forth or throw off a stream; run or flow (often followed by with):
eyes streaming with tears.
11.
to extend in a beam or in rays, as light:
Sunlight streamed in through the windows.
12.
to move or proceed continuously like a flowing stream, as a procession.
13.
to wave or float outward, as a flag in the wind.
14.
to hang in a loose, flowing manner, as long hair.
verb (used with object)
15.
to send forth or discharge in a stream:
The wound streamed blood.
16.
to cause to stream or float outward, as a flag.
17.
Digital Technology. to transfer or transmit (data) in such a way that it is processed in a steady and continuous stream:
Internet service providers are talking about setting limits on the amount of data that can be streamed into your home.
18.
Nautical. to place (an object) in the water at the end of a line attached to a vessel.
Idioms
19.
on stream, in or into operation:
The factory will be on stream in a month.
Origin
before 900; (noun) Middle English streem, Old English strēam; cognate with German Strom, Old Norse straumr; akin to Greek rheîn to flow (see rheum); (v.) Middle English streamen, derivative of the noun
Related forms
streamless, adjective
streamlike, adjective
interstream, adjective
outstream, verb (used with object)
understream, noun
Can be confused
brook, creek, river, stream.
Synonym Study
Stream, current refer to a steady flow. In this use they are interchangeable. In the sense of running water, however, a stream is a flow that may be as small as a brook or as large as a river: A number of streams have their sources in mountains. Current refers to the most rapidly moving part of the stream: This river has a swift current.
Examples from the web for streams
  • Everywhere, ponds are linked to streams, which burble over small waterfalls into still more ponds.
  • Then it streams the pictures or clips together into a time-lapse of your garden.
  • Water streams into a stone basin backed by lavender and pink penstemon.
  • One group counted all the streams across the glacier and categorized them into three sets of streams: large, medium or small.
  • Sportsmen will find a variety of streams, lakes and reservoirs, along with state parks and public lands for family recreation.
  • The streams start to look alike, as do the mountains.
  • First, there was an ample supply of water from the lake and nearby alpine streams to the north.
  • It's an ever-changing river that has been fed by many tributaries, streams, that is constantly moving.
  • These departments must depend on two funding streams-taxpayer dollars and student fees.
  • As the current recession eats away at endowments and chokes off state revenue streams, he will surely not be alone.
British Dictionary definitions for streams

stream

/striːm/
noun
1.
a small river; brook
2.
any steady flow of water or other fluid
3.
something that resembles a stream in moving continuously in a line or particular direction
4.
a rapid or unbroken flow of speech, etc: a stream of abuse
5.
a flow of money into a business: a revenue stream
6.
(Brit) any of several parallel classes of schoolchildren, or divisions of children within a class, grouped together because of similar ability
7.
go with the stream, drift with the stream, to conform to the accepted standards
8.
off stream, (of an industrial plant, manufacturing process, etc) shut down or not in production
9.
on stream
  1. (of an industrial plant, manufacturing process, etc) in or about to go into operation or production
  2. available or in existence
verb
10.
to emit or be emitted in a continuous flow: his nose streamed blood
11.
(intransitive) to move in unbroken succession, as a crowd of people, vehicles, etc
12.
(intransitive) to float freely or with a waving motion: bunting streamed in the wind
13.
(transitive) to unfurl (a flag, etc)
14.
(intransitive) to move causing a trail of light, condensed gas, etc, as a jet aircraft
15.
(mining) when intr, often foll by for. to wash (earth, gravel, etc) in running water in prospecting (for gold, etc), to expose the particles of ore or metal
16.
(Brit, education) to group or divide (children) in streams
Derived Forms
streamlet, noun
streamlike, adjective
Word Origin
Old English; related to Old Frisian strām, Old Norse straumr, Old High German stroum, Greek rheuma
Word Origin and History for streams

stream

n.

Old English stream "a course of water," from Proto-Germanic *straumaz (cf. Old Saxon strom, Old Norse straumr, Danish strøm, Swedish ström, Norwegian straum, Old Frisian stram, Dutch stroom, Old High German stroum, German Strom "current, river"), from PIE root *sreu- "flow" (see rheum). Meaning "current in the sea" (e.g. Gulf Stream) is recorded from late 14c. Stream of consciousness in lit crit first recorded 1931, originally in psychology (1855).

v.

early 13c., from stream (n.). Related: Streamed; streaming.

streams in Science
stream
  (strēm)   

  1. A flow of water in a channel or bed, as a brook, rivulet, or small river.

  2. A flow of a watery substance, such as blood in blood vessels or cytoplasm in fungal hyphae, in an organism or in part of an organism.


streams in Technology
operating system
A collection of system calls, kernel resources, and kernel utility routines that can create, use, and dismantle a stream. A "stream head" provides the interface between the stream and the user processes. Its principal function is to process STREAMS-related user system calls. A "stream module" processes data that travel bewteen the stream head and driver. The "stream end" provides the services of an external input/output device or an internal software driver. The internal software driver is commonly called a pseudo-device driver.
The STREAMS concept has been formalised in Unix System V. For example, SVR4 implements sockets and pipes using STREAMS, resulting in pipe(2) openning bidirectional pipes.
[IBM AIX 3.2 Communication Programming Concepts, SC23-2206-03].
(1999-06-29)
Idioms and Phrases with streams

stream

see: