CHUTE, a channel or trough, artificial or natural, down which objects, such as timber, coal or grain may slide, identical in meaning and pronunciation with "shoot." A channel cut in a dam on a river for the passage of floating timber, and in Louisiana and on the Mississippi a channel at the side of a river or narrow way between an island and the shore. The "water-chute," a steep wooden slope terminating in a shallow lake down which run flat bottomed boats, is a Canadian pastime, which has been popular in London and elsewhere.