mill race

• mill-race
• millrace

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈmɪlɹeɪs/

mill race (plural mill races)

1. A fast-running water-filled channel diverted from a river or stream used to drive the millwheel in a watermill.
   • 1935, Benedict Read, The Green Child, Capuchin, published 2010, page 36:

     She liked the cold water of the mill-race, and without shame or hesitation would throw off her frock and float like a mermaid, almost invisible, in the watery element.

   • 1987, Gene Wolfe, chapter XXVII, in The Urth of the New Sun, 1st US edition, New York: Tor Books, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 162:

     For a time the apostis glowed like a forge; gradually it dimmed and went out, and our ship resumed a more conventional position, though the wind still screamed in the rigging and the clouds scudded under us like flecks of foam in a mill race.

   • 2000, Lewis J Swindle, The History of the Gold Discoveries of the Northern Mines of California's Mother Lode Gold Belt As Told by the Newspapers and Miners 1848-1875, Trafford Publishing, →ISBN, page 8:

     The mill race was a ditch that was cut which started along the river’s edge that ran past the mill to provide the water that would turn a wheel that would provide power to the saws. There was a gate on the ditch which could be raised or lowered to allow the water to run or to stop its flow down the ditch.

• lade, mill lade (Scotland), millrun, watergang (Scotland)

• headrace, wheel-race, tailrace

• mill dam, millpond

• micellar