Flood (?), n. [OE. flod a flowing, stream, flood, AS. flōd; akin to D. vloed, OS. flōd, OHG. fluot, G. flut, Icel. flōð, Sw. & Dan. flod, Goth. flōdus; from the root of E. flow. √80. 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.
Milton.
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.
Shak.
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.
Harvey.
Flood anchor Naut. , 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.
© Webster 1913.
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.
© Webster 1913.