[OE. wæterflód: see WATER sb. and FLOOD sb. Cf. MHG. waʓʓervluot (mod.G. wasserflut), MLG. watarvlôt, ON. vatnsflóð.]
1. A moving flood or overflowing of water, a tempestuous sea.
c. 893. K. Ælfred, Oros., I. vi. 36. On þæs Ambictiones tide wurdon swa mycele waterflod ʓeond ealle world.
1535. Coverdale, Ps. xxix. 10. The Lorde stilleth [1539 Bible sitteth aboue] the water floude.
1571. Golding, Calvin on Ps. lxix. 20. 261. They see the ungodly rush uppon them without staye, and too rage like a waterflud.
a. 1593. Marlowe, Ovid’s Elegies, II. x. 14. Why addst thou … to the vast deepe sea fresh water flouds?
1871. Macduff, Mem. Patmos, xx. 273. Not like the abrupt and sweeping waterflood, but rather like the silent dew as it distills imperceptibly on blade and flower.
1902. A. Ollivant, in Monthly Rev., Aug., 171. Her hair was all about him like a water-flood; her kisses on his brow, her breath upon him.
† 2. collectively. Water as opposed to land. Obs.
c. 1200. Ormin, 17567. O lifft, o land, o waterrflod, Wiþ fele kinne shaffte.
1390. Gower, Conf., III. 92. For riht as veines ben of blod In man, riht so the water flod Therthe of his cours makth ful of veines.
3. A body or mass of water in flood.
c. 1435. Torr. Portugal, 1872. A Grype … A way … bare her yong son Ouer a water fflood, Over in to a wyldernes There seynt Antony ermet was.
1854. Swinburne, Atalanta, 1380. O that I now, I too were By deep wells and water-floods.
1917. O. Wildridge, Captains & Co., ix. 108. And now, as the tug drew near, there trailed across the intervening strip of water-flood a snatch of ‘Auld Lang Syne.’
