streamline

(strēm'līn')

1. To construct or design in a form that offers the least resistance to fluid flow.
2. To improve the appearance or efficiency of; modernize.
3. 1. To organize.
   2. To simplify.

1. A line that is parallel to the direction of flow of a fluid at a given instant.
2. The path of one particle in a flowing fluid.
3. A contour of a body constructed so as to offer minimum resistance to a fluid flow.

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For more information on streamline, visit Britannica.com.

The line traced by a liquid or gas as it moves. Streamlines are most commonly used in describing the flow of a liquid or gas around a solid object.

• A “streamlined” design is one in which objects that move through a gas or liquid are shaped to match these lines, and therefore reduce the energy required to produce that motion.

A Macintosh tracing program from Adobe. It converts scanned or MacPaint images into PostScript files, which can be modified in Adobe Illustrator.

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In 1936, we were in the midst of streamlining not just our transportation but our furniture, our fashions, our bodies, our work--seemingly every aspect of our lives. The Baltimore Sun offered this advice in November 1936: "Those who watch financial fashion observe a tendency to streamline capital set-ups for tax purposes." The previous year saw publication of a book, Streamline for Health; the next year the Denver Post suggested, "Streamline your dance frock." We streamlined our radios and our toasters to match the new streamlined trains. We even built buildings in the streamlined style later called art deco (1966).

Where did all this streamlining come from? For many years streamline had been a technical term used by scientists and engineers. In this century of high speed, they had been working to streamline vehicles, particularly the new airplanes, to reduce wind resistance. And as trains and cars; became faster, they too seemed to need streamlining.

In May 1934, on the opening day of the Century of Progress world's fair in Chicago, the world's attention was drawn to a Burlington Railroad passenger train, the Zephyr, which arrived from Denver in 13 hours 5 minutes, less than half the time of the previous record. What was its secret? Light weight and streamlining. Soon the Zephyr's smooth horizontal lines were imitated on typewriters and desks, dining tables and be frames, houses and sheds--objects that were not to likely to be hurled at high speed through the air. Formerly boxy automobiles too were redesigned to look as if they were racing along even when they were parked. By the time designers of this era got through with streamlining, it had little to do with air flow and much to do with appearance.

Towards the end of the century, when cars were redesigned to reduce wind resistance and increase fuel efficiency, streamline could not be used; the word implied a style (and an old-fashioned one at that) instead of a technical process. The term we use nowadays for reducing drag and going with the flow is aerodynamic.

A contour on the body that offers the minimum of resistance to a fluid flowing around it. It is technically described as a line in a fluid such that the tangent to it at every point follows the direction of the velocity of the fluid particle at that point at a given instant.

Physiological phenomenon of blood flow which passes through a vessel without complete mixing so that blood from two different sources and with different composition can flow side by side within the one vessel. May occur in the portal vein and be the possible explanation for the occasional limitation of lesions of toxopathic hepatitis to one lobe of the liver.

• s. portal blood flow — laminar flow applied to the blood flowing through the portal vein to the liver.

Dansk (Danish)
v. tr. - gøre strømlinet, rationalisere, modernisere
n. - strømlinet form
adj. - strømlinet

Nederlands (Dutch)
stroomlijn, vereenvoudigen, stroomlijnen

Français (French)
v. tr. - caréner, rationaliser, dégraisser
n. - ligne aérodynamique
adj. - (gén) aux lignes modernes, (Aut, Aviat, Naut) caréné, (fig) simplifié

Deutsch (German)
n. - Stromlinienform, Stromlinie
v. - eine Stromlinienform geben, rationalisieren
adj. - stromlinienförmig

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - φυσική ροή, αεροδυναμική γραμμή
v. - δίνω αεροδυναμική γραμμή, (μτφ.) βελτιστοποιώ, εκσυγχρονίζω

Italiano (Italian)
schematizzare, linea aerodinamica, linea di corrente

Português (Portuguese)
n. - forma aerodinâmica
v. - dar forma aerodinâmica

Русский (Russian)
направление течения, линия тока, обтекаемая форма, придавать обтекаемую форму, упрощать

Español (Spanish)
v. tr. - simplificar, racionalizar, modernizar
n. - línea aerodinámica, perfil aerodinámico
adj. - aerodinámico

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - strömlinje, strömlinjeform, ström (fys.)
v. - strömlinjeforma, rationalisera, effektivera

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
使成流线型, 使合理化, 流线, 流线型, 流线型的

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
v. tr. - 使成流線型, 使合理化
n. - 流線, 流線型
adj. - 流線型的

한국어 (Korean)
v. tr. - 유선형으로 하다, 능률적으로 하다, 합리화하다
n. - 유선 , 유선형
adj. - 유선형의

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 流線, 流線型, 流線形
adj. - 流線形の
v. - 流線型にする, 能率的にする, 流線形にする

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) خط انسيابي (فعل) ينسق, يجعله انسيابيا‏

עברית (Hebrew)
v. tr. - ‮פישט מבנה ארגוני, ייעל, נתן (לעצם, לרכב) צורה חלקה ההמזערת את התנגדותו לזרם‬
n. - ‮קו של זרימה שקטה‬
adj. - ‮ללא מערבולת (זרם), בעל צורה הממזערת התנגדות לזרימה (עצם)‬

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