runnel
**Definition:** A small, temporary stream — the trickle of water that forms on a hillside during rain, flows across a beach at low tide, or drains from a snowfield in spring. Runnels are the smallest channels that carry water — too small to be creeks, too temporary to be mapped, but the first links in the chain that builds a river.
A small, temporary stream — the trickle of water that forms on a hillside during rain, flows across a beach at low tide, or drains from a snowfield in spring. Runnels are the smallest channels that carry water — too small to be creeks, too temporary to be mapped, but the first links in the chain that builds a river.
Etymology
Old English rynel, a small stream, diminutive of ryne, a running, from rinnan, to flow.
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