sluice vs sluice box

sluice

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

  • The stream flowing through a floodgate. 

  • A water gate or floodgate. 

  • 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. 

verb
  • 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 wet copiously, as by opening a sluice 

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

sluice box

noun
  • A box with riffles along the bottom, used to trap heavier gold particles as water washes them and the other material along the box. 

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