sprue

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

• noun A chronic, chiefly tropical disease characterized by diarrhea, emaciation, and anemia, caused by defective absorption of nutrients from the intestinal tract.
• noun The hole through which molten material is channeled into a mold.
• noun The waste material filling or protruding from this hole after hardening.
• noun The usually plastic rod or framework that secures molded objects, such as model parts or game pieces, before their first use.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun See sprew.
• noun In casting metal, one of the passages leading from the “skimming-gate” to the mold; also, the metal which fills the sprue or sprue-gate after solidification: same as dead-head, 1 . Also called sprue-gate.
• noun A piece of metal or wood used by a molder in making the ingate through the sand.

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

• noun Strictly, the hole through which melted metal is poured into the gate, and thence into the mold.
• noun The waste piece of metal cast in this hole; hence, dross.
• noun (Med.) Same as Sprew.

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

• noun medicine A tropical disease causing a sore throat and tongue, and disturbed digestion; psilosis.
• noun founding The hole through which melted metal is poured into the gate, and thence into the mold.
• noun founding Material that cools in the feed channels to a mold.

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

• noun a chronic disorder that occurs in tropical and non-tropical forms and in both children and adults; nutrients are not absorbed; symptoms include foul-smelling diarrhea and emaciation