watercourse
noun
wa·ter·course
ˈwȯ-tər-ˌkȯrs 
ˈwä-
1
: a natural or artificial channel through which water flows
2
: a stream of water (such as a river, brook, or underground stream)
Synonyms
Examples of watercourse in a Sentence
Pesticides are sometimes responsible for contamination of watercourses.
the Erie Canal was the first watercourse to connect the Hudson River with the Great Lakes
Recent Examples on the Web
The salmon were meant to be released in the Imnaha River, a 77-mile long watercourse in the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest.
—
Zoe Sottile, CNN, 7 Apr. 2024
Living in White Plains, N.Y., in the 1980s, Mrs. Wallace galvanized a broad campaign to rescue the river, at the time an inaccessible 23-mile watercourse that was home to more flotsam, like the carcasses of junked cars and rusted refrigerators, than fauna.
—Sam Roberts, New York Times, 1 Mar. 2024
The Miami River, the five-mile watercourse that flows from Miami International Airport down to Biscayne Bay, also holds many chapters of Miami’s history on its banks.
—Miami Staff, Miami Herald, 30 Jan. 2024
Recently surging watercourses have mellowed to tenable levels.
—Lila Seidman, Los Angeles Times, 11 Sep. 2023
The last major investment in the garden was more than 40 years ago, when city parks horticulturalist Don Todt was given funds to shore up the watercourse with concrete and bring more greenery to the sloping rectangle that spans from the park’s Winburn Way to residential Granite Street.
—oregonlive, 23 Oct. 2022
But governments and developers all along the watercourse are scrambling to exploit its natural and social resources.
—Brian Eyler, Foreign Affairs, 11 Feb. 2020
But bountiful downpours that started the year -- causing deadly flooding in some places -- have left the state in much better shape and watercourses are flowing.
—CBS News, 16 Feb. 2023
Connecting the dots, Mr. Kempton envisions a hidden watercourse that flows across nearly three blocks of the cathedral’s property — starting at the church’s north side near West 113th Street and running southward across the 11-acre property to Cathedral Parkway.
—William J. Broad George Etheredge, New York Times, 23 Dec. 2022
Zoe Sottile, CNN, 7 Apr. 2024
Living in White Plains, N.Y., in the 1980s, Mrs. Wallace galvanized a broad campaign to rescue the river, at the time an inaccessible 23-mile watercourse that was home to more flotsam, like the carcasses of junked cars and rusted refrigerators, than fauna.
—Sam Roberts, New York Times, 1 Mar. 2024
The Miami River, the five-mile watercourse that flows from Miami International Airport down to Biscayne Bay, also holds many chapters of Miami’s history on its banks.
—Miami Staff, Miami Herald, 30 Jan. 2024
Recently surging watercourses have mellowed to tenable levels.
—Lila Seidman, Los Angeles Times, 11 Sep. 2023
The last major investment in the garden was more than 40 years ago, when city parks horticulturalist Don Todt was given funds to shore up the watercourse with concrete and bring more greenery to the sloping rectangle that spans from the park’s Winburn Way to residential Granite Street.
—oregonlive, 23 Oct. 2022
But governments and developers all along the watercourse are scrambling to exploit its natural and social resources.
—Brian Eyler, Foreign Affairs, 11 Feb. 2020
But bountiful downpours that started the year -- causing deadly flooding in some places -- have left the state in much better shape and watercourses are flowing.
—CBS News, 16 Feb. 2023
Connecting the dots, Mr. Kempton envisions a hidden watercourse that flows across nearly three blocks of the cathedral’s property — starting at the church’s north side near West 113th Street and running southward across the 11-acre property to Cathedral Parkway.
—William J. Broad George Etheredge, New York Times, 23 Dec. 2022
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'watercourse.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near watercourse
Cite this Entry
“Watercourse.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/watercourse. Accessed 20 Apr. 2024.
Copy CitationKids Definition
watercourse
noun
wa·ter·course
-ˌkō(ə)rs
-ˌkȯ(ə)rs
1
: a channel in which water flows
2
: a stream of water (as a river or brook)
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