• enPR: flŭd, IPA: /flʌd/

flood (plural floods)

1. A (usually disastrous) overflow of water from a lake or other body of water due to excessive rainfall or other input of water.
   • 1667, John Milton, “Book 10”, in Paradise Lost. A Poem Written in Ten Books, London: Printed [by Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […] [a]nd by Robert Boulter […] [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], OCLC 228722708 ↗; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: The Text Exactly Reproduced from the First Edition of 1667: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554 ↗:

     a covenant never to destroy the earth again by flood

   • 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter II, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, OCLC 639762314 ↗, page 0147 ↗:

     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.

2. (figuratively) A large number or quantity of anything appearing more rapidly than can easily be dealt with.

   a flood of complaints

3. The flowing in of the tide, opposed to the ebb.
   • 1599, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Ivlivs Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act IV, scene iii]:

     There is a tide in the affairs of men, / Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune.

4. A floodlight.
5. Menstrual discharge; menses.
6. (obsolete) Water as opposed to land.
   • 1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost

     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.

• French: inondation
• German: Flut (tidal), Überflutung, Überschwemmung, Hochwasser
• Italian: inondazione, alluvione
• Portuguese: cheia, enchente, inundação
• Russian: наводне́ние
• Spanish: inundación; avenida, riada

• German: Flut
• Italian: marea, alluvione
• Portuguese: dilúvio, enxurrada
• Russian: наплы́в
• Spanish: diluvio

flood (floods, present participle flooding; past and past participle flooded)

1. To overflow, as by water from excessive rainfall.
2. To cover or partly fill as if by a flood.

   The floor was flooded with beer.

   They flooded the room with sewage.

3. (figuratively) To provide (someone or something) with a larger number or quantity of something than can easily be dealt with.

   The station's switchboard was flooded with listeners making complaints.

4. (Internet, ambitransitive) To paste numerous lines of text to (a chat system) in order to disrupt the conversation.
   • 1998, "Dr. Cat", Furry web site plug (on newsgroup alt.fan.furry)

     There's also a spam filter in the code now, so if someone attempts to flood people's screens with macros or a bot, everything after the first few lines is thrown away.

5. To bleed profusely, as after childbirth.

• (overflow) drain

• (overflow) overfill
• (cover) inundate
• (provide with large number) inundate, swamp, deluge

• French: inonder
• German: überschwemmen, überfluten, überfüllen
• Italian: allagare, inondare, (river, intransitive) straripare
• Portuguese: transbordar

• French: inonder
• German: überschwemmen, überfluten
• Italian: allagare, inondare
• Portuguese: inundar, alagar
• Russian: затопи́ть

• French: submerger, noyer
• Italian: inondare, subissare
• Portuguese: inundar

• Portuguese: floodar
• Russian: флуди́ть

1. (biblical) The flood referred to in the Book of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible.

• Deluge