flood
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: enpr: flŭd
ipa: /flʌd/
rhymes: -ʌd
Forms: form: floods
form: floud
Etymology: From Middle English flod, from Old English flōd, from Proto-West Germanic *flōdu, from Proto-Germanic *flōduz, from *plew- (“to flow”). Cognate with Scots flude, fluid, Saterland Frisian Floud, Dutch vloed, German Flut, Danish flod, Icelandic flóð, and Gothic 𐍆𐌻𐍉𐌳𐌿𐍃 (flōdus).
Senses: examples: text: a covenant never to destroy the earth again by flood
ref: 1667, John Milton, “Book X”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
text: Carried somehow, somewhither, for some reason, on these surging floods, were these travelers, of errand not wholly obvious to their fellows, yet of such sort as to call into query alike the nature of their errand and their own relations.
ref: 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter II, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
text: Floods in northern India, mostly in the small state of Uttarakhand, have wrought disaster on an enormous scale. The early, intense onset of the monsoon on June 14th swelled rivers, washing away roads, bridges, hotels and even whole villages. Rock-filled torrents smashed vehicles and homes, burying victims under rubble and sludge.
ref: 2013 June 29, “High and wet”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8842, page 28:
text: China's Ministry of Water Resources Saturday warned that floods are expected to hit the country and called on relevant departments to make preparation.
Heavy rains have hit parts of southern, eastern and central China since Wednesday, pushing water levels in some rivers well above warning lines, the ministry said.
China entered its flood season on Saturday, four days earlier than previous years, and the country may suffer from more and stronger rain as well as floods with more extreme weather forecast for the flood season, the ministry warned.
ref: 2020 March 29, “China enters flood season”, in China Internet Information Center:
glosses: An overflow of a large amount of water (usually disastrous) from a lake or other body of water due to excessive rainfall or other input of water.
examples: text: a flood of complaints
text: Deregulation of financial markets laid the groundwork for the subprime crisis in the United States, while a badly designed euro contributed to the debt crisis in Greece, and the Schengen system of open borders made it difficult to control the flood of refugees in Europe.
ref: 2016 December 6, Francis Fukuyama, “The Dangers of Disruption”, in The New York Times:
glosses: A large number or quantity of anything appearing more rapidly than can easily be dealt with.
examples: text: There is a tide in the affairs of men, / Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune.
ref: 1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii]:
text: It was ebb tide when she touched, and it was supposed that when the flood made she would float off again.
ref: 1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 217:
text: The flood had made, the wind was nearly calm, and being bound down the river, the only thing for us was to come to and wait for the turn of the tide.
ref: 1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I, page 193:
glosses: The flowing in of the tide, opposed to the ebb.
glosses: A floodlight.
glosses: Menstrual discharge; menses.
examples: text: Who beheld from the safe shore their floating carcasses and broken chariot-wheels. So thick bestrown, abject and lost, lay these, covering the flood, under amazement of their hideous change.
ref: 1667, John Milton, “(please specify the page number)”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
glosses: Water as opposed to land.
Derived terms: 100-year flood
antiflood
flash flood
floodage
flood basalt
floodboard
flood chute
flood fill
flood frosting
floodful
floodgate
flood gate
flood-gate
flood geology
floodgum
flood-hit
flood icing
floodlamp
floodland
floodless
floodlet
floodlight
floodlike
flood map
floodmark
flood meadow
floodometer
flood pants
floodplain
flood plain
flood plain toadlet
flood pool
flood-prone
floodprone
floodproof
flood stage
flood test
flood tide
floodtime
floodwall
floodwater
flood water
floodway
floody
fore-flood
glacial lake outburst flood
inflood
in floods
Japanese flood fever
landflood
mana flood
megaflood
mud flood
nonflood
outburst flood
photoflood
postflood
preflood
rat flood
send the flood
sheet flood
sky-flood
superflood
tidal flood
upflood
waterflood
Zanclean flood
Related terms: deluge
diversion
inundation
sheetwash
torrent