fountain vs sluice

fountain

verb
  • To flow or gush as if from a fountain. 

noun
  • An artificial, usually ornamental, water feature (usually in a garden or public place) consisting of one or more streams of water originating from a statue or other structure. 

  • A natural source of water; a spring. 

  • A reservoir from which liquid can be drawn. 

  • A source or origin of a flow (e.g., of favors or knowledge). 

  • A juggling pattern typically done with an even number of props where each prop is caught by the same hand that throws it. 

  • A roundel barry wavy argent and azure. 

  • A ground-based firework that projects sparks similar to a water fountain. 

  • Anything that resembles a fountain in operation. 

  • The structure from which an artificial fountain can issue. 

  • A drink poured from a soda fountain, or the cup it is poured into. 

  • A soda fountain. 

sluice

verb
  • To wet copiously, as by opening a sluice 

  • To wash (down or out). 

  • To flow, pour. 

  • To elide the complement in a coordinated wh-question. See sluicing. 

  • To emit by, or as by, flood gates. 

  • To wash with, or in, a stream of water running through a sluice. 

noun
  • The stream flowing through a floodgate. 

  • A water gate or floodgate. 

  • A long box or trough through which water flows, used for washing auriferous earth. 

  • An instance of wh-stranding ellipsis, or sluicing. 

  • An artificial passage for water, fitted with a valve or gate, for example in a canal lock or a mill stream, for stopping or regulating the flow. 

  • Hence, an opening or channel through which anything flows; a source of supply. 

How often have the words fountain and sluice occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )