Also 6–8 aquæ-, aquaduct. [ad. L. aquæductus, aquæ ductus, ductus aquæ, conveyance of water, f. duc-ĕre to lead, bring. Cf. F. aquéduc.]
1. An artificial channel for the conveyance of water from place to place; a conduit; esp. an elevated structure of masonry used for this purpose.
1538. Leland, Itin., IV. 77. At the place of the midle meeting of these Streets, is an Aquæduct.
1621. Burton, Anat. Mel., II. ii. I. i. That Segouian Aqueduct in Spaine … vpon three rowes of pillars, one aboue another, convaying sweet water to euery house.
1647. R. Stapylton, Juvenal, 51. The charge of aquaducts or publike conduits.
1858. Hawthorne, Fr. & It. Jrnls., II. 219. The Claudian aqueduct … looks like a long procession, striding across the Campagna.
b. transf. or fig.
1646. J. Hall, Horæ Vac., 32. Preaching is the Christall aquaeduct that conveighs the water of Life to us.
1857. H. Reed, Brit. Poets, iii. 94. The poets were apt to fill their urns chiefly from the classical aqueducts of antiquity.
1875. Grindon, Life, vi. 71. Looking at the clouds merely as aqueducts, we miss the chief part of their beautiful ministry, which is to fill the sky with the idea of Life.
2. The similar structure by which a canal is carried over a river, etc. (Also called aqueduct-bridge.)
1791. Newte, Tour Eng. & Scot., 296. One of the most remarkable curiosities upon this magnificent canal is the aqueduct bridge of Cesse.
1842. Whittock, Bk. Trades, 204. ‘Aqueducts’ are frequently employed on a canal for the purpose of carrying it over rivers.
3. Phys. Name given to several small canals, chiefly in the head of mammals.
1709. Blair, in Phil. Trans., XXVII. 108. The boney part of the Aqueduct. Ibid. (1718), ibid., XXX. 890. The Aqueduct[’s] … Use is to receive the superfluous Moisture from the Cavitas Tympani.
1881. Mivart, Cat, 66. The facial nerve … traversing in its way a canal termed the Aqueduct of Fallopius.
