as in pipe
a long hollow cylinder for carrying a substance (as a liquid or gas)
a penstock carried water for the waterwheel
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of penstock
Provide point protection for Balch Camp PG&E hydro-electric and residential facilities, two powerhouses, Balch communication reflector, penstock and valve houses, and associated power distribution lines.
—
Ca Wildfire Bot, Sacbee.com, 10 Sep. 2025
Brenda Burman, general manager of the Central Arizona Project, presented a diagram showing the dam’s eight large tubes, called penstocks, that water normally passes through, as well as the smaller outlet pipes that enable water releases at low reservoir levels.
—Ian James, Los Angeles Times, 16 Apr. 2024
The penstock flows powered the turbines that turned shafts activating the top-side generators.
—Charles R. Morris, WSJ, 21 June 2018
The reservoir can also be lowered by discharges through the dam’s power plant, but one of the two power plant outlets, known as penstocks, was shut down for routine maintenance of turbines.
—Ralph Vartabedian, latimes.com, 10 May 2017
Equipment: An intake gate called a penstock, valves and pressure gauges, turbine, switchgear, inverter, and electronics.
—Popular Mechanics Editors, Popular Mechanics, 6 Feb. 2017
Ca Wildfire Bot, Sacbee.com, 10 Sep. 2025
Brenda Burman, general manager of the Central Arizona Project, presented a diagram showing the dam’s eight large tubes, called penstocks, that water normally passes through, as well as the smaller outlet pipes that enable water releases at low reservoir levels.
—Ian James, Los Angeles Times, 16 Apr. 2024
The penstock flows powered the turbines that turned shafts activating the top-side generators.
—Charles R. Morris, WSJ, 21 June 2018
The reservoir can also be lowered by discharges through the dam’s power plant, but one of the two power plant outlets, known as penstocks, was shut down for routine maintenance of turbines.
—Ralph Vartabedian, latimes.com, 10 May 2017
Equipment: An intake gate called a penstock, valves and pressure gauges, turbine, switchgear, inverter, and electronics.
—Popular Mechanics Editors, Popular Mechanics, 6 Feb. 2017
Recent Examples of Synonyms for penstock
Noun
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The music thumped away, though at reduced volume, the bats performed their acrobatics over the pool, the hash pipe glowed, people began to yawn.—
T. Coraghessan Boyle,
New Yorker,
14 Sep. 2025
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Zajicek, signed in the offseason, had thus far played all his hockey in his native Czechia but looked right at home between the pipes for the B’s.—
Steve Conroy,
Boston Herald,
13 Sep. 2025
Noun
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The Western States Petroleum Association has been warning California lawmakers since last year that dwindling Central Valley oil production risked shuttering pipelines such as the San Pablo Bay conduit.—
Bloomberg,
Mercury News,
11 Sep. 2025
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By February, Dudek had become the conduit between DOGE and the SSA, alerting top agency officials that DOGE wanted to work at headquarters.—
Eli Hager,
ProPublica,
8 Sep. 2025
Noun
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The loitering munition systems empowers the warfighter with quick and easy deployment via tube-launch, and the capability to fly, track and engage non-line-of-sight targets and armored vehicles with precision lethal effects without the need for external ISR or fires assets.—
Prabhat Ranjan Mishra,
Interesting Engineering,
14 Sep. 2025
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Some include the Madrid train bombings, where 193 died in 2004, the 2005 London tube bombings with 56 dead, and an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester where 23 were killed in 2017.—
Michael Goldstein,
Forbes.com,
11 Sep. 2025
Noun
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Paramount has nurtured Pluto TV, which has lagged a bit in recent years but has been a pioneer in the FAST business, while WBD has shown an appetite to use its deep library to drive FAST channels and AVOD license deals.—
Anthony D'Alessandro,
Deadline,
12 Sep. 2025
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Processing channels like frozen, dried, purees, sauces, and meal kits offer enormous potential to utilize every strawberry, apple, and tomato that comes out of the field.—
Ivanka Trump,
Fortune,
12 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Penstock.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/penstock. Accessed 18 Sep. 2025.
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