flood

/fləd/

/fləd/

Other forms: floods; flooded; flooding

A flood is an enormous amount of water. If the street is full of water, it's flooded. Too much of anything can also be called a flood.

Whenever it rains and rains and rains, there's the danger of a flood, a type of disaster where water is out of control. Because a flood is so powerful, people use the word when overwhelmed by other things. A top college graduate could be flooded with job offers — that's a good kind of flood. People can also be flooded with emotion. Words with similar meanings are deluge and overflow. Too much — or just a lot — of anything can seem like a flood.

Definitions of flood

1. noun

   the rising of a body of water and its overflowing onto normally dry land
   synonyms: alluvion, deluge, inundation

   types:

   debacle

   flooding caused by a tumultuous breakup of ice in a river during the spring or summer

   flash flood, flashflood

   a sudden and great flow of water in a short period of time

   Noachian deluge, Noah and the Flood, Noah's flood, the Flood

   (Biblical) the great deluge that is said in the Book of Genesis to have occurred in the time of Noah; it was brought by God upon the earth because of the wickedness of human beings

   floodhead

   a wall of water rushing ahead of the flood

   type of:

   geological phenomenon

   a natural phenomenon involving the structure or composition of the earth
2. noun

   the act of flooding; filling to overflowing
   synonyms: flowage

   type of:

   filling

   the act of filling something
3. noun

   the occurrence of incoming water (between a low tide and the following high tide)
   “"a tide in the affairs of men which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune" -Shakespeare”

   synonyms: flood tide, rising tide

   type of:

   tide

   the periodic rise and fall of the sea level under the gravitational pull of the moon
4. noun

   a large flow
   synonyms: outpouring, overflow

   types:

   effusion

   flow under pressure

   type of:

   flow, stream

   the act of flowing or streaming; continuous progression
5. verb

   cover with liquid, usually water
   “The swollen river flooded the village”

   “The broken vein had flooded blood in her eyes”

   types:

   flow

   cover or swamp with water

   deluge, inundate, submerge

   fill or cover completely, usually with water

   drench, swamp

   drench or submerge or be drenched or submerged

   lap, lave, wash

   wash or flow against

   type of:

   cover, spread over

   form a cover over
6. verb

   fill quickly beyond capacity; as with a liquid
   “The images flooded his mind”

   synonyms: deluge, inundate, swamp

   type of:

   fill, fill up, make full

   make full, also in a metaphorical sense
7. verb

   become filled to overflowing
   “Our basement flooded during the heavy rains”

   type of:

   fill, fill up

   become full
8. noun

   an overwhelming number or amount
   “a flood of requests”

   synonyms: barrage, deluge, flurry, inundation, torrent

   type of:

   batch, deal, flock, good deal, great deal, hatful, heap, lot, mass, mess, mickle, mint, mountain, muckle, passel, peck, pile, plenty, pot, quite a little, raft, sight, slew, spate, stack, tidy sum, wad

   (often followed by `of') a large number or amount or extent
9. verb

   supply with an excess of
   “flood the market with tennis shoes”

   synonyms: glut, oversupply

   type of:

   furnish, provide, render, supply

   give something useful or necessary to
10. noun

    light that is a source of artificial illumination having a broad beam; used in photography
    synonyms: flood lamp, floodlight, photoflood

    type of:

    light, light source

    any device serving as a source of illumination