The name of several English rivers, of which the chief are the Yorkshire Ouse, flowing through the great Vale of York southwards to the Humber, receiving the Swale, Ure, Nidd, Wharfe, and Aire from the W. and the Derwent from the E., and having in its basin more great towns than any other river in the country; the Great Ouse, rising in the S. of Northamptonshire, pursuing a winding course NE. through the plains of Buckingham, Bedford, Huntingdon, Cambridge, and Norfolk to the Wash; and the Sussex Ouse.