Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A sluice or gate used to control a flow of water.
- n. A pipe or conduit used to carry water to a water wheel or turbine.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. In hydraulic engin., that part of the channel, conduit, or trough supplying water to a water-wheel which extends between the race and the gate through which the water flows to the wheel. It is generally made of planks or boards bound on the outside with stout timbers.
- n. A hydrant supplying water which is conveyed through a pipe from the source of supply.
- n. The barrel of a pump, in which the piston plays, and through which the water passes up.
Wiktionary
- n. A sluice or pipe which allows the controlled flow of water from behind a dam, typically routing it to a turbine of a power plant.
- n. The barrel of a wooden pump.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A close conduit or pipe for conducting water, as, to a water wheel, or for emptying a pond, or for domestic uses.
- n. The barrel of a wooden pump.
WordNet 3.0
- n. regulator consisting of a valve or gate that controls the rate of water flow through a sluice
- n. conduit that carries a rapid flow of water controlled by a sluicegate
Etymologies
- Perhaps from pen an enclosure + stock. (Wiktionary)
Examples
“The distance to the nearest penstock is 6,180 feet, in which length the fall in grade is 28 feet.”
“They were working as contractors for Xcel inside a large, drained water pipe called a penstock when a fire erupted.”
The Huffington Post: Xcel Trying To Suppress Federal Report On Deaths In Tunnel Fire
“Aloft in a section of steel water-tunnel liner called a penstock, government officials view the Hoover Dam construction site.”
“From there, an intake directs a portion of the river's flow into a buried pipe called a penstock, which sends it downhill and through a pair of turbines before returning it to the river.”
James Glave: Backstage at a Run-of-River Green-Energy Project
“The fire began at the hydroelectric plant on Oct. 2, 2007, while the workers were in a drained water tunnel, known as a penstock, connected to the plant, cleaning a sprayer with a flammable solvent.”
“(iv) Installation costs - the pipes which take the water from the source to the turbine (known as the penstock pipes) can be lighter as water hammer is eliminated.”
“McInnes is standing inside a eight-foot-diameter section of pipe, or "penstock" that will ultimately carry water to the project's turbines.”
James Glave: Backstage at a Run-of-River Green-Energy Project
“That evening it did not hurt her a particle, and concluding that what was good for one foot must be good for two, she put both under the "penstock" till they were almost congealed.”
“She was at that time an ardent convert to the "water cure" theories and, after suffering tortures from one foot especially, she came home from the afternoon meeting, put it under the "penstock" in the kitchen and let the cold water run over it till it was perfectly numb, then”
“One end was used for the dining-room, with the table seating twenty persons, and in the other were the sink and the "penstock," which brought water from a clear, cold spring high up in the mountains.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘penstock’.
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WF - nominal compounds (concrete)
foodstuff, banknote, crankshaft, earphone, fibreboard, fishplate, forklift, glassware, guardrail, handicraft, headband, kitchenware and 181 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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End in -ock
Inspired by fbharjo (see spitchcock).
spitchcock, hillock, willock, peacock, pajock, penock, yapock, sycock, bittock, bawcock, burrock, cammock and 168 more...
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Dam
List of words pertaining to dams and other means of impounding and directing water; their names, parts, pieces, passageways.
gage-weir, rafter-dam, bear-trap dam, tripsill, splash-dam, flood-dam, flooding-dam, sluiceway, spillway, millrace, headrace, sluice-valve and 38 more...
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Words of the Day
glabella, chirotony, nook-shotten, crapehanger, filemot, swirlie, egosurf, lexiphanicism, Ruritanian, stichometry, chrononaut, faldstool and 2041 more...
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Mill
The milling of grain: tools, people, processes, laws.
mill, grain, flour, miller, water-wheel, meal, thirl, thirlage, sucken, suckener, astricted, outsucken and 33 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for penstock.
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