[In sense 1 ad. L. confluent-em, pl. confluent-es, the pr. pple. used as a masc. sb.; cf. F. confluent in same sense. In sense 2, sb. use of prec.]
† 1. A confluence of rivers; the place where streams or rivers unite. Rarely in pl. [= L. confluentes, or perh. for confluence.] Obs.
1600. Holland, Livy, IV. xvii. 151. The Roman Dictator … abode upon the banckes of the Confluent (where both rivers runne into one). Ibid. (1601), Pliny, I. 140. Where Euphrates the riuer … ioineth with Tigris in one confluent. Ibid. (1610), Camden’s Brit., I. 401. Ouse … is augmented with a namelesse brooke, at whose confluents is … Temesford.
1611. Coryat, Crudites, 59. A little beyond the townes end the River Arar and the Rhodanus doe make a confluent.
2. A stream that unites and flows with another: properly applied to streams of nearly equal size; but sometimes loosely used for affluent, i.e., a smaller stream flowing into a larger.
1850. Layard, Nineveh, vii. 160. The Supna, one of its confluents.
1860. Sat. Rev., X. 563/1. The principles on which one confluent is selected rather than another for the honour of being called the main stream, are not very easy to determine.
1861. W. H. Russell, in Times, 10 July. Commanding the Mississippi, here about 700 yards broad, and a small confluent which runs into it.
