watercourse

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a stream, river, or other natural body of running water

   The seasonal watercourse filled rapidly after several days of rain.

2. 2
   noun

   the natural or artificial channel, bed, or route along which water flows

   Engineers cleared debris from the watercourse to reduce the risk of flooding.

From Middle English water course, a transparent compound of water + course. Recorded as one word from the early sixteenth century, it can name either the flowing stream itself or the natural or engineered channel that carries it.

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