Also (U.S.) -ee, -ie, coolie, -ey. [a. F. coulée flow, f. couler to flow: see -ADE. Sense 2 appears to have arisen among the French trappers in the Oregon region.]
1. Geol. A stream of lava, whether molten or consolidated into rock; a lava-flow.
1839. Murchison, Silur. Syst., I. xxxii. 428. Large stratiform and horizontal coulées of volcanic rock.
1879. Rutley, Stud. Rocks, iv. 32. Molten viscous lava, forming flows or coulées.
2. In the Western regions of Canada and the United States: A deep ravine or gulch scooped out by heavy rain or melting snow, but dry in summer.
1807. in Amer. State P., Publ. Lands (1832), I. 313. Bounded in front by the river Detroit, and in rear by a coulée or small run. Ibid., 346. Bounded … above by a creek (or coulée) called ventre de bœuf.
1860. in Bartlett, Dict. Amer.
1881. Chicago Times, 14 May. These ‘coolies’ are dry during the summer season, but are flooded in the spring of the year.
1884. Lisbon (Dakota) Clipper, 13 March. She [a cow] was discovered in a cooley.
