a river branch flowing away from the main stream

Pronunciation:
dih-STRIB-yuh-terr-ee

In a sentence:
Trying to enjoy the last days of their honeymoon, Nina and Tom decided to ignore both the dead body floating in the distributary, and the man with a blood-stained shirt who had dumped it there.

In a different sentence:
Throwing rocks into the distributary was a favorite pastime for the Jackson family—until one day something went horribly wrong, and only three of the four Jacksons made it home…