See also: riffle ((v.)) (def. 1c)
- 1819  (1939)  I perceived the canoe avoid the rapid and enter a shute.
- 1956  [We met with] a long, oily chute, black as frozen molasses, white water on each side of us and white water ahead
3 n. Lumbering an artificial sluiceway down which logs or cribs may be directed to avoid rapids, falls, or other obstructions in a river.
See also: slide (def. 1a)
- 1903  . . . a dozen rivermen, one after the other, would often go through the chute of a dam standing upright on single logs.
- 1947  On Porcupine Lake a dam had been built to control the flow of water, and the chute itself was nineteen hundred and fourteen feet long.