chute

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun An inclined trough, passage, or channel through or down which things may pass.
• noun A narrow, usually fenced passage for horses or cattle.
• noun A usually straight extension of one side of an oval racetrack, used to start certain longer races so that the finish line can be kept on a straightaway in front of the stands or clubhouse.
• noun A gated stall that is used to hold and release animals into an open area, especially horses and steers being ridden in a rodeo.
• noun A waterfall or rapid.
• noun A parachute.
• intransitive verb To convey or deposit by a chute.
• intransitive verb To go or descend by a chute.
• idiom (out of the chute) At the very beginning; right away.

from The Century Dictionary.

• To send down or through a chute, as logs.
• noun An inclined trough or tube along which things can slide from a higher to a lower level; a shoot.
• noun A waterfall or rapid; a fall over which timber is floated.
• noun An opening in a dam through which to float timber.
• noun In Louisiana and along the Mississippi, a bayou or side channel; also, a narrow passage between two islands, or between an island and the shore.
• noun In mining. See shoot.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun A framework, trough, or tube, upon or through which objects are made to slide from a higher to a lower level, or through which water passes to a wheel.
• noun See Shoot.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun A framework, trough, or tube, upon or through which objects are made to slide from a higher to a lower level, or through which water passes to a wheel.
• noun parachute

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun sloping channel through which things can descend
• verb jump from an airplane and descend with a parachute
• noun rescue equipment consisting of a device that fills with air and retards your fall