Word Study
bayou
CIDE DICTIONARY
bayou, n. [North Am. Indian bayuk, in F. spelling bayouc, bayouque.].
An inlet from the Gulf of Mexico, from a lake, or from a large river, sometimes sluggish, sometimes without perceptible movement except from tide and wind. [1913 Webster]
"A dark slender thread of a bayou moves loiteringly northeastward into a swamp of huge cypresses." [1913 Webster]
OXFORD DICTIONARY
bayou, n. a marshy offshoot of a river etc. in the southern US.
Etymology
Amer. F: cf. Choctau bayuk
THESAURUS
bayou
affluent, arm, armlet, bay, belt, bight, billabong, boca, branch, confluent, confluent stream, cove, creek, dendritic drainage pattern, effluent, estuary, euripus, feeder, fjord, fork, frith, gulf, gut, harbor, inlet, kyle, loch, mouth, narrow, narrow seas, narrows, natural harbor, prong, reach, road, roads, roadstead, slough, sound, strait, straits, tributaryROGET THESAURUS
bayou
Lake
N gulf, lake, land covered with water, gulf, gulph, bay, inlet, bight, estuary, arm of the sea, bayou, fiord, armlet, frith, firth, ostiary, mouth, lagune, lagoon, indraught, cove, creek, natural harbor, roads, strait, narrows, Euripus, sound, belt, gut, kyles, continental slope, continental shelf, lake, loch, lough, mere, tarn, plash, broad, pond, pool, lin, puddle, slab, well, artesian well, standing water, dead water, sheet of water, fish pond, mill pond, ditch, dike, dyke, dam, reservoir, alberca, barachois, hog wallow, lacustrine.River
N river, running water, jet, spirt, spurt, squirt, spout, spray, splash, rush, gush, jet d'eau, sluice, water spout, water fall, cascade, force, foss, lin, linn, ghyll, Niagara, cataract, rapids, white water, catadupe, cataclysm, debacle, inundation, deluge, chute, washout, rain, rainfall, serein, shower, scud, downpour, driving rain, drenching rain, cloudburst, hyetology, hyetography, predominance of Aquarius, reign of St. Swithin, mizzle, drizzle, stillicidum, plash, dropping, falling weather, northeaster, hurricane, typhoon, stream, course, flux, flow, profluence, effluence, defluxion, flowing, current, tide, race, coulee, spring, artesian well, fount, fountain, rill, rivulet, gill, gullet, rillet, streamlet, brooklet, branch, runnel, sike, burn, beck, creek, brook, bayou, stream, river, reach, tributary, geyser, spout, waterspout, body of water, torrent, rapids, flush, flood, swash, spring tide, high tide, full tide, bore, tidal bore, eagre, hygre, fresh, freshet, indraught, reflux, undercurrent, eddy, vortex, gurge, whirlpool, Maelstrom, regurgitation, overflow, confluence, corrivation, wave, billow, surge, swell, ripple, anerythmon gelasma, beach comber, riffle, rollers, ground swell, surf, breakers, white horses, whitecaps, rough sea, heavy sea, high seas, cross sea, long sea, short sea, chopping sea, hydrodynamics, hydraulics, hydraulicostatics, rain gauge, flowmeter, pegology, irrigation, pump, watering pot, watering cart, hydrant, syringe, garden hose, lawn spray, bhisti, mussuk, fluent, diffluent, profluent, affluent, tidal, flowing, meandering, meandry, meandrous, fluvial, fluviatile, streamy, showery, rainy, pluvial, stillicidous, stillatitious, for men may come and men may go but I go on foreve, that old man river, he just keeps rolling along.For further exploring for "bayou" in Webster Dictionary Online