Flood /(flŭd)/

Flood

n.
  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 disharge; menses.

Phrases & Compounds
Flood anchor
, 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

v. t.

imp. & p. p. Flooded; p. pr. & vb. n. Flooding

  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.