Bayou

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Bayou \Bay"ou\, n.; pl. {Bayous}. [North Am. Indian bayuk, in F.
     spelling bayouc, bayouque.]
     An inlet from the Gulf of Mexico, from a lake, or from a
     large river, sometimes sluggish, sometimes without
     perceptible movement except from tide and wind. [Southern U.
     S.]


     [1913 Webster]
  
           A dark slender thread of a bayou moves loiteringly
           northeastward into a swamp of huge cypresses. --G. W.
                                                    Cable.
     [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  bayou
       n : a swampy arm or slow-moving outlet of a lake (term used
           mainly in Mississippi and Louisiana)

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  42 Moby Thesaurus words for "bayou":
     affluent, arm, armlet, bay, belt, bight, billabong, boca, branch,
     confluent, confluent stream, cove, creek,
     dendritic drainage pattern, effluent, estuary, euripus, feeder,
     fjord, fork, frith, gulf, gut, harbor, inlet, kyle, loch, mouth,
     narrow, narrow seas, narrows, natural harbor, prong, reach, road,
     roads, roadstead, slough, sound, strait, straits, tributary