• Arroyo – A small steep-walled (usually) dry watercourse with a flat floor. A gulch or gully. Chiefly in the U.S. southwest.
• Bank – Edge of a stream.
• Bed and banks – For property lines that cross a body of water, this term is used to explicitly refer to the bottom of the water.
• Bottom – Land along a river.
• Branch – Small stream.
• Brook – Small stream.
• Creek – Small stream.
• Drain – Small dry stream or gully.
• Draughts of – (pronounced drafts). See waters of.
• Drean – See drain.
• Ford – Shallow part of a stream or river where one could cross.
• Fork – Meeting point of two streams. “In the fork of” means between two branches.
• Gut – A narrow passage between hills. A stream in such a passage. A drain.
• Head – The source of a stream.
• Headwaters – The smallest streams that combine to make a larger stream.
• Kill – (Dutch) Creek.
• Lower – Toward the mouth of a stream. Further down along its course. Opposite of upper.
• Meander – “with the meanders of the stream” means the survey line follows the twists and turns of the stream.
• Mouth – The place where a stream enters another, larger stream.
• Narrows – Narrow part of a stream.
• River – Large stream.
• Run – Small stream.
• Shoal – Shallows.
• Spring – A pool or other source of water that feeds a stream.
• Swamp – In the southeastern U.S., a stream, particularly one that has has swampy parts. A marsh.
• Thalweg – 1. An imaginary line connecting the lowest points of a valley. 2. The line connecting the lowest points of a stream\’s channel. 3. The surface midline of a channel.
• Upper – Toward the head of a stream. Further up along its course. Opposite of lower.
• Vly – (Dutch) Swampy lowland.
• Waters (“watters”) of – In the drainage of. On the branches of.