Bayou \Bay"ou\, n.; pl. Bayous. [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. [Southern U.
   S.]
   [1913 Webster]

         A dark slender thread of a bayou moves loiteringly
         northeastward into a swamp of huge cypresses. --G. W.
                                                  Cable.
   [1913 Webster]

	

	bayou
    n 1: a swampy arm or slow-moving outlet of a lake (term used
         mainly in Mississippi and Louisiana)

	

	42 Moby Thesaurus words for "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, tributary