coulees

Noun

coulee (plural coulees)

1. A stream, especially one in the western US or Canada, generally smaller than a bayou; it may (or may not) run dry in summer, may be sluggish, shallow, and wide (forming in effect a pond or slough), or may have formerly cut a deep gulch or ravine, but at present run dry.
   • […] Mauvaise Coulee enters Devils Lake from the north, but it cannot be said to drain the lakes with which it is connected. It is itself a long-drawn-out slough or pool which is broader at those places where it spreads out into lakes. […] the head streams or coulees of the Park, the Forest and the...1907, Daniel Everett Willard, The Story of the Prairies, page 168
2. (Mississippi Delta region) A reach of water in a bayou that is like a slough but deeper.
   • We were in a coulee, which is like a slough but deeper and with slushier muds at the bottom.1989, John McPhee, The Control of Nature, →ISBN, page 73
3. A lava flow (whether molten or solidified).
   • The edge of a coulee, or stream of solidified lava, though ordinarily a very low escarpment, is exceptionally of such size as to deserve attention in the present connection.1928, U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper, page 43

See all 5 meanings of coulee