water column
noun
plural water columns
1
: a vertical expanse of water stretching between the surface and the floor of a body of water
Shallow feeders, sea lions work the top 600 feet of the water column for hake, rock-fish, herring, sardines … and squid, but opportunistically capturing anything that happens by.—
Downs Matthews
Downs MatthewsOnly a few animals of the water column above would have died and settled into the sediments below during the short time when the mudslide was coalescing into a layer of sediment in the stagnant basin.—Stephen Jay Gould
Stephen Jay Gould2
: a vertical pipe with valves and spout for delivering water to a locomotive tender
Examples of water column in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
On bright sunny days, schools of baitfish will move to the top of the water column to feed on phytoplankton.
—Kubie Brown, Outdoor Life, 3 Oct. 2024
Really giving it a ton of action and letting those tentacles do the work up in the water column seems to generate a lot more bites.
—Shaye Baker, Outdoor Life, 8 Aug. 2024
For the deep-dwelling sharks, that meant move up in the water column to a more oxygen-rich zone or die.
—Popular Science Team, Popular Science, 31 July 2024
How deep to troll, too, is another variable, one again answered by locating fish in the water column with your depth finder.
—M.d. Johnson, Field & Stream, 20 June 2024
See all Example Sentences for water column 
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Kubie Brown, Outdoor Life, 3 Oct. 2024
Really giving it a ton of action and letting those tentacles do the work up in the water column seems to generate a lot more bites.
—Shaye Baker, Outdoor Life, 8 Aug. 2024
For the deep-dwelling sharks, that meant move up in the water column to a more oxygen-rich zone or die.
—Popular Science Team, Popular Science, 31 July 2024
How deep to troll, too, is another variable, one again answered by locating fish in the water column with your depth finder.
—M.d. Johnson, Field & Stream, 20 June 2024
See all Example Sentences for water column
Dictionary Entries Near water column
Cite this Entry
“Water column.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/water%20column. Accessed 5 Nov. 2024.
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