millrace

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a channel that carries a current of water to or away from a waterwheel

   The millrace drove the wheel before returning the water to the river.

2. 2
   noun

   a swift current or rush resembling water in such a channel

   Disordered images ran like a millrace through his imagination.

A compound of mill + race. Race here means a channel or current of water, not a contest. The figurative sense compares a rapid flow of thoughts or events to water rushing through a mill channel.

Topics