tributary

IPA: trˈɪbjʌtɛri

(hydrology) A natural water stream that flows into a larger river or other body of water.
(anatomy) A vein which drains into another vein.
A nation, state, or other entity that pays tribute.

Related to the paying of tribute.
subordinate; inferior
Yielding supplies of any kind; serving to form or make up, a greater object of the same kind, as a part, branch, etc.; contributing.

Examples of "tributary" in Sentences

Gironde, so that it can scarce be called a tributary of that wide water.
From Wikipedia: A tributary is a stream or river which flows into a main stem (or parent) river.
Although the Angara is five times as large as the Yenisei, it is called a tributary of the latter.
Assyria (compare Ho 7: 11), as Israel lately had done (2Ki 17: 4), after having revolted from Assyria, to whom they had been tributary from the times of Menahem (2Ki 15: 19).
Some still refer to this archipelago by its original name, the Ryukyu Islands, a kingdom that maintained so-called tributary relationships with China and Japan hundreds of years ago.
After due deliberation we decided that the best place to ford was a short distance above the junction of a tributary from the other side and opposite a sandbar which divided the river.
In the spring and fall, bass tend to chase baitfish more actively, and whenever you encounter any type of surface activity, especially in tributary creeks, you're usually close to bass.
It is a small town of about two thousand inhabitants, crowded up against the mountains, at the end of a little valley through which runs a mountain stream of the same name tributary to the Rio Grande.
The fourth side of the enceinte stands on a solid rock, above the little river that loses itself in the flat-lands bordering the Gironde, so that it can scarce be called a tributary of that wide water.