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Stream vs Drain - What's the difference?

stream | drain | Related terms |

In intransitive terms the difference between stream and drain

is that stream is to flow in a continuous or steady manner, like a liquid while drain is to flow gradually.

stream

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • A small river; a large creek; a body of moving water confined by banks.
  • *
  • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=8 , passage=Now we plunged into a deep shade with the boughs lacing each other overhead, and crossed dainty, rustic bridges over the cold trout-streams , the boards giving back the clatter of our horses' feet:
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-01, author=Nancy Langston, volume=101, issue=1, page=59
  • , magazine=(American Scientist) , title= The Fraught History of a Watery World , passage=European adventurers found themselves within a watery world, a tapestry of streams , channels, wetlands, lakes and lush riparian meadows enriched by floodwaters from the Mississippi River.}}
  • A thin connected passing of a liquid through a lighter gas (e.g. air).
  • Any steady flow or succession of material, such as water, air, radio signal or words.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
  • , chapter=10 citation , passage=With a little manœuvring they contrived to meet on the doorstep which was […] in a boiling stream of passers-by, hurrying business people speeding past in a flurry of fumes and dust in the bright haze.}}
  • * {{quote-news, year=2011, date=December 21, author=Helen Pidd
  • , title=Europeans migrate south as continent drifts deeper into crisis, work=the Guardian citation , passage=A new stream of migrants is leaving the continent. It threatens to become a torrent if the debt crisis continues to worsen.}}
  • (sciences) An umbrella term for all moving waters.
  • (computing) A source or repository of data that can be read or written only sequentially.
  • (UK, education) A division of a school year by perceived ability.
  • Synonyms

    * beck * brook * burn * creek * flow * rill

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To flow in a continuous or steady manner, like a liquid.
  • * Milton
  • beneath those banks where rivers stream
  • * 1898 , , (Moonfleet) Chapter 4
  • When I came to myself I was lying, not in the outer blackness of the Mohune vault, not on a floor of sand; but in a bed of sweet clean linen, and in a little whitewashed room, through the window of which the spring sunlight streamed .
  • To extend; to stretch out with a wavy motion; to float in the wind.
  • A flag streams in the wind.
  • (Internet) To push continuous data (e.g. music) from a server to a client computer while it is being used (played) on the client.
  • Anagrams

    * ----

    drain

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A conduit allowing liquid to flow out of an otherwise contained volume.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-03, volume=101, issue=2, page=114, magazine=(American Scientist)
  • , author=Frank Fish, George Lauder , title= Not Just Going with the Flow , passage=An extreme version of vorticity is a vortex . The vortex is a spinning, cyclonic mass of fluid, which can be observed in the rotation of water going down a drain , as well as in smoke rings, tornados and hurricanes.}}
  • An access point or conduit for rainwater that drains directly downstream in a (drainage) basin without going through sewers or water treatment in order to prevent or belay floods.
  • Something consuming resources and providing nothing in return.
  • (label) An act of urination.
  • (label) The name of one terminal of a field effect transistor (FET).
  • Derived terms

    * circle the drain * down the drain * drain fly

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To lose liquid.
  • The clogged sink drained slowly.
  • To flow gradually.
  • The water of low ground drains off.
  • (ergative) To cause liquid to flow out of.
  • Please drain the sink. It's full of dirty water.
  • (ergative) To convert a perennially wet place into a dry one.
  • They had to drain the swampy land before the parking lot could be built.
  • To deplete of energy or resources.
  • The stress of this job is really draining me.
  • To draw off by degrees; to cause to flow gradually out or off; hence, to exhaust.
  • * Francis Bacon
  • Fountains drain the water from the ground adjacent.
  • * Motley
  • But it was not alone that he drained their treasure and hampered their industry.
  • (obsolete) To filter.
  • * Francis Bacon
  • Salt water, drained through twenty vessels of earth, hath become fresh.
  • (pinball) To fall off the bottom of the playfield.
  • * 1990 , Steven A. Schwartz, Compute's Nintendo Secrets
  • When a ball finally drains , it's gulped down by a giant gator beneath the set of flippers.

    Derived terms

    * drainage * drain the lizard (vulgar)

    Anagrams

    *