3. Anything issuing or moving with continued succession of parts; as, a
stream of words; a stream of sand. "The stream of beneficence."
Atterbury. "The stream of emigration." Macaulay.
4. A continued current or course; as, a stream of weather. "The very
stream of his life." Shak.
5. Current; drift; tendency; series of tending or moving causes; as,
the stream of opinions or manners.
Gulf stream. See under Gulf. -- Stream anchor, Stream cable. (Naut.)
See under Anchor, and Cable. -- Stream ice, blocks of ice floating in a
mass together in some definite direction. -- Stream tin, particles or
masses of tin ore found in alluvial ground; -- so called because a
stream of water is the principal agent used in separating the ore from
the sand and gravel. -- Stream works (Cornish Mining), a place where an
alluvial deposit of tin ore is worked. Ure. -- To float with the
stream, figuratively, to drift with the current of opinion, custom,
etc., so as not to oppose or check it.
Syn. -- Current; flow; rush; tide; course. -- Stream, Current. These
words are often properly interchangeable; but stream is the broader
word, denoting a prevailing onward course. The stream of the
Mississippi rolls steadily on to the Gulf of Mexico, but there are
reflex currents in it which run for a while in a contrary direction.
Stream, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Streamed (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Streaming.]
1. To issue or flow in a stream; to flow freely or in a current, as a
fluid or whatever is likened to fluids; as, tears streamed from her
eyes.
Beneath those banks where rivers stream.
Milton.