flue
/fluː/US/flu/
flue noun: a pipe or duct that carries gaseous combustion products away from the point of combustion (such as a furnace). Also the alternative form of flew.
Noun
flue (plural flues)
- A pipe or duct that carries gaseous combustion products away from the point of combustion (such as a furnace).
- It has frequently been a subject of inquiry, whether the ancients were acquainted with chimneys, or open fire-places. In the houses discovered at Herculaneum and Pompeii, there are no chimneys; they all appear to have been warmed by furnaces and flues.1815, Robertson Buchanan, A Treatise on the Economy of Fuel, and Management of Heat, Especially as it Relates to Heating and Drying by Means of Steam, Appendix, p. 307.
- Besides the usual run of machines, planers, millers, automatics, centre lathes, cranes, etc., there were several power stations, the rolling mills for strip material and for 60 ft. rails, and all the steel furnaces with their complicated systems of flues. If variety is the spice of life, then there...1944 November and December, A Former Pupil, “Some Memories of Crewe Works—II”, in Railway Magazine, page 341
- An enclosed passageway in which to direct a current of air or other gases along.
- A woolly or downy substance; down, nap; a piece of this.
- In an organ flue pipe, the opening between the lower lip and the languet.
Also used as
flue is also the alternative form of flew.
Examples of flue in a sentence
- If you burn wood on its own, the flue gases are cooler than from a coal fire.
- We have so far concentrated on creosote fires as a source of elevated flue gas temperatures.
- Sometimes nicknamed “flue whale” (a combination of the words “fin” and “blue”), these hybrids can present traits of both parent species.
Forms of flue
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | flues |
| Adjective | |
| comparative | more flue |
| superlative | most flue |
Origin of flue
From Middle English flue, flewe (“mouthpiece of a hunting horn”), of uncertain origin. Perhaps a back-formation from Middle English *flews (mistaken as a plural), from Old English flēwsa (“a flow, flowing, flux”). Alternatively, perhaps an alteration of Middle English floute, fleute, flote (“a pipe”), see English flute. Compare also Middle Dutch vloegh (“groove, channel, flute of a fluted column”).
Words formed from flue
Phrases with flue
Words that rhyme with flue
Questions about flue
- What does flue mean?
- Flue means a pipe or duct that carries gaseous combustion products away from the point of combustion (such as a furnace).
- What part of speech is flue?
- Flue is a noun.
- How do you pronounce flue?
- Flue is pronounced /fluː/ (UK).
- What is the plural of flue?
- The plural of flue is flues.
Words near flue in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: flue (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-flue.wav.
Cite this entry: “flue.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/flue. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.