Sluicing

Verb

1. Present participle of sluice

Full definition of sluicing

Noun

1. The act by which something is sluiced; a copious wetting; a drenching.
2. (linguistics) A kind of ellipsis, introduced by an interrogative, where (usually) everything except the interrogative is elided from the clause, as in "I like him, but I don't know why".