stream

Etymology

From Middle English streem, strem, from Old English strēam, from Proto-West Germanic *straum, from Proto-Germanic *straumaz (“stream”), from Proto-Indo-European *srowmos (“river”), from Proto-Indo-European *srew- (“to flow”). Doublet of rheum. Cognate with Scots strem, streme, streym (“stream, river”), North Frisian strum (“stream”), West Frisian stream (“stream”), Low German Stroom (“stream”), Dutch stroom (“current, flow, stream”), German Strom (“current, stream”), Danish and Norwegian Bokmål strøm (“current, stream, flow”), Norwegian Nynorsk straum (“current, stream, flow”), Swedish ström (“current, stream, flow”), Icelandic straumur (“current, stream, torrent, flood”), Ancient Greek ῥεῦμα (rheûma, “stream, flow”), Lithuanian srovė (“current, stream”) Polish strumień (“stream”), Welsh ffrwd (“stream, current”), Scottish Gaelic sruth (“stream”).

noun

1. A small river; a large creek; a body of moving water confined by banks.
   European adventurers found themselves within a watery world, a tapestry of streams, channels, wetlands, lakes and lush riparian meadows enriched by floodwaters from the Mississippi River. 2013-01, Nancy Langston, “The Fraught History of a Watery World”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 1, page 59
2. A thin connected passing of a liquid through a lighter gas (e.g. air).
   He poured the milk in a thin stream from the jug to the glass.
3. Any steady flow or succession of material, such as water, air, radio signal or words.
   Her constant nagging was to him a stream of abuse.
   With a little manœuvring they contrived to meet on the doorstep which was […] in a boiling stream of passers-by, hurrying business people speeding past in a flurry of fumes and dust in the bright haze. 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 10, in The China Governess
   A new stream of migrants is leaving the continent. It threatens to become a torrent if the debt crisis continues to worsen. December 21, 2011, Helen Pidd, “Europeans migrate south as continent drifts deeper into crisis”, in the Guardian
4. (sciences, umbrella term) All moving waters.
5. (computing) A source or repository of data that can be read or written only sequentially.
6. (figurative) A particular path, channel, division, or way of proceeding.
   Haredi Judaism is a stream of Orthodox Judaism characterized by rejection of modern secular culture.
7. (UK, education) A division of a school year by perceived ability.
   All of the bright kids went into the A stream, but I was in the B stream.
8. A live stream.

verb

1. (intransitive) To flow in a continuous or steady manner, like a liquid.
2. (intransitive) To extend; to stretch out with a wavy motion; to float in the wind.
   A flag streams in the wind.
3. (transitive) To discharge in a stream.
   The soldier's wound was streaming blood.
4. (Internet) To push continuous data (e.g. music) from a server to a client computer while it is being used (played) on the client.