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Great Expectations vocabulary
361 vocabulary words, including people, places, music, artists, etc.
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weir
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synonyms: lasher ???
► definition
Definition:1. 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.2. A fence of stakes, brushwood, or the like, set in a stream, tideway, or inlet of the sea, for taking fish.Noah Webster. Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
photo: By A. Balet - Own work, CC BY 3.0,
► uses
Uses:
[Richard and Hyacinth in a river lock]
Hyacinth: [stands in rowboat] Ahoy there lock-keeper! I must warn you that we’ve sailed on the QE2. As an experienced mariner, I’m not prepared to wait down here indefinitely. There must be a quicker way to go!
Lock-keeper: You could try going over the weir.
Hyacinth: What do you think, Richard? Should we try going over the weir?
BBC. Keeping Up Appearances: A Riverside Picnic
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There are many designs of weir, but commonly water flows freely over the top of the weir crest before cascading down to a lower level. [...]
There is no single definition as to what constitutes a weir and one English dictionary simply defines a weir as a small dam, likely originating from Middle English were, Old English wer, derivative of root of werian, meaning "to defend, dam"
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In large scale river navigation improvements, weirs and locks are used together. A weir will increase the depth of a shallow stretch, and the required lock will either be built in a gap in the weir, or at the downstream end of an artificial cut which bypasses the weir and perhaps a shallow stretch of river below it.
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It was but for an instant that I seemed to struggle with a thousand mill-weirs and a thousand flashes of light;
Charles Dickens. Great Expectations (1861)
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