Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A fence or wattle placed in a stream to catch or retain fish.
  • noun A dam placed across a river or canal to raise or divert the water, as for a millrace, or to regulate or measure the flow.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A dam erected across a river to stop and raise the water, as for the purpose of taking fish, of conveying a stream to a mill, of maintaining the water at the level required for navigating it, or for purposes of irrigation.
  • noun A fence, as of twigs or stakes, set in a stream for catching fish.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A dam in a river to stop and raise the water, for the purpose of conducting it to a mill, forming a fish pond, or the like.
  • noun A fence of stakes, brushwood, or the like, set in a stream, tideway, or inlet of the sea, for taking fish.
  • noun A long notch with a horizontal edge, as in the top of a vertical plate or plank, through which water flows, -- used in measuring the quantity of flowing water.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun An adjustable dam placed across a river to regulate the flow of water downstream.
  • noun A fence placed across a river to catch fish.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a low dam built across a stream to raise its level or divert its flow
  • noun a fence or wattle built across a stream to catch or retain fish

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English were, from Old English wer; see wer- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Old English wer, akin to Old Norse ver ("station for fishing").

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Examples

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  • Citation on pus.

    June 22, 2008

  • from Thoreau's A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers

    July 19, 2009