1. A natural body of running water flowing on or under the earth
   "The stream gurgled as it flowed over the rocks";
   - watercourse
    
2. A steady flow of a fluid (usually from natural causes)
   "he felt a stream of air"; "the hose ejected a stream of water";
   - current
    
3. Dominant course (suggestive of running water) of successive events or ideas
   "two streams of development run through American history"; "stream of consciousness";
   - flow, current
    
4. The act of flowing or streaming; continuous progression
   "A stream of people exited the theatre";
   - flow
    
5. Something that resembles a flowing stream in moving continuously
   "a stream of people emptied from the terminal";
   - flow
    
6. (computing) a source or repository of data usually read or written sequentially over time
   "The program processes the input stream one character at a time"

1. Flow freely and abundantly
   "Tears streamed down her face";
   - well out
    
2. To extend, wave or float outward, as if in the wind
   "their manes streamed like stiff black pennants in the wind"
    
3. Exude profusely
   "She was streaming with sweat"; "His nose streamed blood"
    
4. Move in large numbers
   "people were streaming out of the theatre";
   - pour, swarm, teem, pullulate
    
5. Play a video or audio file as it downloads from the Internet
   "They streamed the live concert on their smartphones"
    
6. [Brit, Cdn] Assign students to different groups according to perceived ability
   "The school decided to stop streaming students in maths classes";
   - track [N. Amer]

Derived forms: streams, streamed, streaming

See also: streaming

Type of: be adrift, blow, body of water, course, crowd, crowd together, drift, exudate, exude, feed, float, flow, flowing, line, motion, move, movement, ooze, ooze out, run, transude, water

Encyclopedia: Stream