noun
definition
A stream of water (either natural or artificial) that branches off and flows away from a main stream channel.
Examples of distributaries in a Sentence
They may be characterized as secondary outlets of the rivers or flood distributaries.
The slope of the river bed diminishes until the plain compels the river to move slowly, swinging in meanders proportioned to its size, and gradually, controlled by the flattening land, ceasing to transport material, but raising its banks and silting up its bed by the dropped sediment, until, split up and shoaled, its distributaries struggle across its delta to the sea.
The ordinary triangular form of deltas, due to the smoothing of the delta front by sea action, is here wanting, because of the weakness of sea action in comparison with the strength of the current in each of the four distributaries or passes into which the river divides near its mouth.
The central section of the plains thus presents a marked contrast to the northern section; for while the northern section owes its smoothness to the removal of local gravels and sands from a formerly uneven surface by the action of degrading rivers and their inflowing tributaries, the southern section owes its smoothness to the deposition of imported gravels and sands upon a previously I uneven surface by the action of aggrading rivers and their outgoing distributaries.
In Sind and the Punjab there are many canals which act merely as distributaries of the overflow of the great rivers at the time of inundation; but where the utility of the canals has been increased by permanent headworks the supply of water is perennial and practically inexhaustible, thus contrasting favourably with the less certain protection given by tanks.
Their main channels bifurcate, and each new stream so created throws off its own set of distributaries to right and left.