Flow /(flō)/

1. imp. sing. of Fly, v. i. obs.

imp. & p. p. Flowed; p. pr. & vb. n. Flowing

1. To move with a continual change of place among the particles or parts, as a fluid; to change place or circulate, as a liquid; as, rivers flow from springs and lakes; tears flow from the eyes.
2. To become liquid; to melt.

   The mountains flowed down at thy presence.

3. To proceed; to issue forth; as, wealth flows from industry and economy.

   Those thousand decencies that daily flow From all her words and actions.

4. To glide along smoothly, without harshness or asperties; as, a flowing period; flowing numbers; to sound smoothly to the ear; to be uttered easily.

   Virgil is sweet and flowingin his hexameters.

5. To have or be in abundance; to abound; to full, so as to run or flow over; to be copious.

   In that day . . . the hills shall flow with milk.

   The exhilaration of a night that needed not the influence of the flowing bowl.

6. To hang loose and waving; as, a flowing mantle; flowing locks.

   The imperial purple flowing in his train.

7. To rise, as the tide; -- opposed to ebb; as, the tide flows twice in twenty-four hours.

   The river hath thrice flowed, no ebb between.

8. To discharge blood in excess from the uterus.

1. To cover with water or other liquid; to overflow; to inundate; to flood.
2. To cover with varnish.

1. A stream of water or other fluid; a current; as, a flow of water; a flow of blood.
2. A continuous movement of something abundant; as, a flow of words.
3. Any gentle, gradual movement or procedure of thought, diction, music, or the like, resembling the quiet, steady movement of a river; a stream.

   The feast of reason and the flow of soul.

4. The tidal setting in of the water from the ocean to the shore. See Ebb and flow, under Ebb.
5. A low-lying piece of watery land; -- called also flow moss and flow bog. [Scot.]