Definition: stream

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Source: WordNet (r) 1.7 

stream
     n 1: a natural body of running water flowing on or under the
          earth [syn: watercourse]
     2: dominant course (suggestive of running water) of successive
        events or ideas: "two streams of development run through
        American history"; "stream of consciousness"; "the flow of
        thought"; "the current of history" [syn: flow, current]
     3: a steady flow (usually from natural causes); "the raft
        floated downstream on the current"; "he felt a stream of
        air" [syn: current]
     4: the act of flowing or streaming; continuous progression
        [syn: flow]
     5: something that resembles a flowing stream in moving
        continuously; "a stream of people emptied from the
        terminal"; "the museum had planned carefully for the flow
        of visitors" [syn: flow]
     v 1: to extend, wave or float outward, as if in the wind: "their
          manes streamed like stiff black pennants in the wind."
     2: exude profusely; "She was streaming with sweat"; "His nose
        streamed blood"
     3: move in large numbers; "people were pouring out of the
        theater" [syn: pour, swarm]
     4: rain heavily; "Put on your rain coat-- it's pouring
        outside!" [syn: pour, pelt, rain cats and dogs, rain
        buckets]
     5: flow freely and abundantly; "Tears streamed down her face"
        [syn: well out]

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) 

Stream \Stream\, v. t.
   To send forth in a current or stream; to cause to flow; to
   pour; as, his eyes streamed tears.

         It may so please that she at length will stream Some
         dew of grace into my withered heart.     --Spenser.

   2. To mark with colors or embroidery in long tracts.

            The herald's mantle is streamed with gold. --Bacon.

   3. To unfurl. --Shak.

   To stream the buoy. (Naut.) See under Buoy.
Stream \Stream\ (str[=e]m), n. [AS. stre['a]m; akin to OFries.
   str[=a]m, OS. str[=o]m, D. stroom, G. strom, OHG. stroum,
   str[=u]m, Dan. & Sw. str["o]m, Icel. straumr, Ir. sroth,
   Lith. srove, Russ. struia, Gr. "ry`sis a flowing, "rei^n to
   flow, Skr. sru. [root]174. Cf. Catarrh, Diarrhea,
   Rheum, Rhythm.]
   1. A current of water or other fluid; a liquid flowing
      continuously in a line or course, either on the earth, as
      a river, brook, etc., or from a vessel, reservoir, or
      fountain; specifically, any course of running water; as,
      many streams are blended in the Mississippi; gas and steam
      came from the earth in streams; a stream of molten lead
      from a furnace; a stream of lava from a volcano.

   2. A beam or ray of light. ``Sun streams.'' --Chaucer.

   3. Anything issuing or moving with continued succession of
      parts; as, a stream of words; a stream of sand. ``The
      stream of beneficence.'' --Atterbury. ``The stream of
      emigration.'' --Macaulay.

   4. A continued current or course; as, a stream of weather.
      ``The very stream of his life.'' --Shak.

   5. Current; drift; tendency; series of tending or moving
      causes; as, the stream of opinions or manners.

   Gulf stream. See under Gulf.

   Stream anchor, Stream cable. (Naut.) See under Anchor,
      and Cable.

   Stream ice, blocks of ice floating in a mass together in
      some definite direction.

   Stream tin, particles or masses of tin ore found in
      alluvial ground; -- so called because a stream of water is
      the principal agent used in separating the ore from the
      sand and gravel.

   Stream works (Cornish Mining), a place where an alluvial
      deposit of tin ore is worked. --Ure.

   To float with the stream, figuratively, to drift with the
      current of opinion, custom, etc., so as not to oppose or
      check it.
Stream \Stream\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Streamed; p. pr. & vb. n.
   Streaming.]
   1. To issue or flow in a stream; to flow freely or in a
      current, as a fluid or whatever is likened to fluids; as,
      tears streamed from her eyes.

            Beneath those banks where rivers stream. --Milton.

   2. To pour out, or emit, a stream or streams.

            A thousand suns will stream on thee.  --Tennyson.

   3. To issue in a stream of light; to radiate.

   4. To extend; to stretch out with a wavy motion; to float in
      the wind; as, a flag streams in the wind.

Source: The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (2003-OCT-10) 

STREAM

   ["STREAM: A Scheme Language for Formally Describing Digital
   Circuits", C.D. Kloos in PARLE: Parallel Architectures and
   Languages Europe, LNCS 259, Springer 1987].

   (1995-01-30)
stream

   1. <communications> An abstraction referring to any flow of
   data from a source (or sender, producer) to a single sink (or
   receiver, consumer).  A stream usually flows through a channel
   of some kind, as opposed to packets which may be addressed
   and routed independently, possibly to multiple recipients.
   Streams usually require some mechanism for establishing a
   channel or a "connection" between the sender and receiver.

   2.  In the C language's buffered input/ouput
   library functions, a stream is associated with a file or
   device which has been opened using fopen.  Characters may be
   read from (written to) a stream without knowing their actual
   source (destination) and buffering is provided transparently
   by the library routines.

   3.  Confusingly, Sun have called their
   modular device driver mechanism "STREAMS".

   4.  In IBM's AIX operating system, a
   stream is a full-duplex processing and data transfer path
   between a driver in kernel space and a process in user
   space.

   [IBM AIX 3.2 Communication Programming Concepts,
   SC23-2206-03].

   5.  streaming.

   6.  lazy list.

   (1996-11-06)