Flood
Flood (flud) , noun
[Old English flod a flowing, stream, flood, Anglo-Saxon flōd; akin to Dutch vloed, Old Saxon flōd, Old High German fluot, German flut, Icelandic flōe, Swedish & Danish flod, Gothic flōdus; from the root of English flow. r80. See Flow, v. i.]
1.
A great flow of water; a body of moving water; the flowing stream, as of a river; especially, a body of water, rising, swelling, and overflowing land not usually thus covered; a deluge; a freshet; an inundation.
A covenant never to destroy
The earth again by flood.
2.
The flowing in of the tide; the semidiurnal swell or rise of water in the ocean; -- opposed to ebb; as, young flood; high flood.
There is a tide in the affairs of men,
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune.
3.
A great flow or stream of any fluid substance; as, a flood of light; a flood of lava; hence, a great quantity widely diffused; an overflowing; a superabundance; as, a flood of bank notes; a flood of paper currency.
4.
Menstrual discharge; menses. — Harvey
Collocations (6)
Flood anchor (Nautical) , , the anchor by which a ship is held while the tide is rising.
Flood fence , a fence so secured that it will not be swept away by a flood.
Flood gate , a gate for shutting out, admitting, or releasing, a body of water; a tide gate.
Flood mark , the mark or line to which the tide, or a flood, rises; high-water mark.
Flood tide , the rising tide; -- opposed to ebb tide.
The Flood , the deluge in the days of Noah.
Flood , transitive verb
1.
To overflow; to inundate; to deluge; as, the swollen river flooded the valley.
2.
To cause or permit to be inundated; to fill or cover with water or other fluid; as, to flood arable land for irrigation; to fill to excess or to its full capacity; as, to flood a country with a depreciated currency.