Flood sb.

Forms: 1 flód, 2–6 flod(e, 3 flodd, fludd, 3–4 south. vlod(e, 4–6 floode. flude. (5 flowede, flowyd, fluyd, floth), 5–7 flud, 6 flodde, floud(d)e, fludde, 6–7 floud, Sc. fluid, 4– flood. [Com. Teut.: OE. flód str. masc. and neut. = OFris. and OS. flôd masc., fem. and neut. (MDu. vloet, Du. vloed) = OHG. fluot fem. (MHG. vluot masc. and fem., Ger. flut fem.), ON. flôð neut., Goth. flôdus fem.:—OTeut. *flôðu(z:—pre-Teut. plōtús, f. Aryan verbal stem *plō, whence FLOW v. The primary sense, in accordance with the original function of the suffix -tu, is ‘action of flowing,’ though the concrete uses are found in all Teut. langs.

  For the abnormal development of the vowel in mod.Eng. cf. BLOOD.]

  1.  The flowing in of the tide. Often in phrases, ebb and flood, † tide of flood; also, young, quarter, half, full flood, top of flood.

a. 1000, etc.  [see EBB sb. 1].

O. E. Chron. an. 1031. Whenne þæt flod byþ ealra hehst & ealra fullost.

c. 1200.  Trin. Coll. Hom., 177. For swiche flode, and for swich ebbinge þe prophete nemmeð þis woreld se.

1297.  R. Glouc. (1724), 20.

c. 1350.  Will. Palerne, 2745.

c. 1425.  Wyntoun, Cron., IX. iii. 47.

1523.  Ld. Berners, Froiss., I. xcii. 114. There they cast anker and abode the fludde, and whan the tyde came they had good wynde to retourne to Rochell.

1627.  Capt. Smith, Seaman’s Gram., x. 47. Flood is when the water beginneth to rise, which is young flood as we call it, then quarter flood, halfe flood, full Sea, still water, or high water.

1769.  E. Bancroft, Nat. Hist. Guiana, iii. 323. A small opening, three or four feet in width, through which the fish enter with the tide of flood in quest of food.

1801.  R. Donnelly, in Naval Chron., VI. 161. The young flood making close in shore, the enemy weighed, and rowed round the light-house, within a cable’s length.

1858.  Merc. Marine Mag., V. 175. The flood runs 3 hours.

1867.  Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., s.v. When the water begins to rise, it is called a young flood, next it is quarter-flood, half-flood, and top of flood, or high-water.

  fig.  c. 1430.  Lydg., Min. Poems, 76–7.

1559.  Ferrers, Mirr. Mag., Dk. Glocester, xi.

1601.  Shaks., Jul. C., IV. iii. 219.

1647.  R. Stapylton, Juvenal, The Preface. The empire he endeavoured to reform, was at the highest flood of humane prosperity, but at the lowest ebb of divine Graces.

1710.  Palmer, Proverbs, 143. It seldom happens, but that a Flood of Words have an Ebb of Sense; and as the Man talks, his Passions encrease, and lead him into very Foolish or Impious Expressions.

a. 1862.  Buckle, Civiliz. (1873), III. iii. 178. The history of Scotch industry down to the middle of the eighteenth century, by which time there was no longer any doubt that the flood of material prosperity had fairly set in.

  2.  A body of flowing water; a river, stream, usually, a large river. Obs. exc. poet. † Against the flood: against the stream.

c. 825.  Vesp. Psalter, lxxix [lxxx.]. 12. Ðu aðenedes … oð flod [Vulg. flumen] setene his.

c. 1000.  Ælfric, Gen. ii. 10. Þæt flod eode of stowe þære winsumnisse.

c. 1200.  Ormin, 10612.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 5623 (Cott.).

a. 1470.  Tiptoft, Cæsar, xii. (1530), 15. A flod called the Thames.

c. 1485.  Digby Myst., v. 491.

1562.  Turner, Baths, 3 b. The bathes of Baden in high Germany are in the Markisdome of Baden betwene the famous flode the Rene and the black or martian wood.

1605.  T. Sparke, Brotherly Persw. (1607), 59. Therby the water of the flood Iordan, wherin he [Christ] and others were baptised, and all other water, was indeed sanctified.

1735.  Somerville, The Chace, IV. 407.

1814.  Wordsw., Wh. Doe of Ryl., II. 225.

  transf. and fig.  c. 1200.  Trin. Coll. Hom., 111. He dranc of deðes flode.

1340.  Ayenb., 247. Drinke of the ulode of þine zuetnesse.

  3.  In wider sense: Water as opposed to land, often contrasted with field and fire. Also pl.: cf. waters. Now poet. or rhetorical.

a. 1000.  Cædmon’s Gen., 204 (Gr.). Cynn, þa þe flod wecceð … inc hyrað eall.

c. 1200.  Ormin, 14816.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 13323 (Cott.).

c. 1325.  English Metrical Homilies, 135. For schip fletes on the flode.

c. 1450.  Golagros & Gaw., 302.

1590.  Shaks., Mids. N., II. i. 5.

a. 1668.  Davenant, Distresses, Wks. (1673), 55.

1788.  Cowper, Morning Dream, 25.

1812.  J. Wilson, Isle of Palms, I. 42.

1857.  G. Lawrence, Guy Liv., iv. The accidents of flood and field were discussed over and over again; and, I believe, every man of the twenty-three who had ridden that day could and did prove, to his own entire satisfaction, that he must have won but for some freak of fortune totally unavoidable and defying human calculation. [After Shaks., Oth. I. iii. 135.]

  fig.  a. 1711.  Ken, Edmund, Poet. Wks. 1721, II. 167.

  4.  An overflowing or irruption of a great body of water over land not usually submerged; an inundation, a deluge. In flood, † on a flood: (of a river, etc.) overflowing its banks; (of land) in an inundated condition.

c. 1000.  Ags. Gosp., Matt. vii. 25. Ða com þær ren, & mycele flod.

1125.  O. E. Chron. an. 1125. On ðes ilces ȝeares wearð swa micel flod … þæt feola tunes & men weorðan adrencte.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 1042 (Cott.).

c. 1374.  Chaucer, Troylus, III. 591, Campsall MS. (640). Syn it ron, and al was on a flode.

1496.  in Ld. Treas. Acc. Scotl., I. 283. For bering of the Kingis treis that the flude hed away.

1594.  Shaks., Rich. III., IV. iv. 512.

1673.  Ray, Journ. Low C., 8. That hundred foot thickness of Earth above the Sand arose from the Sediments of the Waters of those great Rivers, which there emptied themselves into the Sea, and in times of Floods brought down with them abundance of Earth from the upper Grounds.

1781.  Cowper, Charity, 282.

1855.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., III. xi. 78. On one occasion, when the floods were out, he [Burnet] exposed his life to imminent risk rather than disappoint a rural congregation which was in expectation of a discourse from the Bishop.

1874.  Froude, in S. Afric. Notes, 13–19 Dec. The rivers in the colony are reported to be in flood, and the bridges to be broken.

  transf. and fig.  a. 1225.  Ancr. R., 74. Of a drope waxeð a muche flod, þæt adrenceð þe soule.

c. 1460.  Towneley Myst. (Surtees), 149.

1611.  Shaks., Cymb., I. vi. 74.

1864.  Tennyson, Aylmer’s F., 339.

1883.  Macfadyen, in Congregational Year-bk., 39. Our churches accordingly in every neighbourhood have served as arks to which those who loved evangelical teaching have repaired in days when floods of unbelief and carelessness have overspread the land.

  b.  The flood: the great deluge recorded in the book of Genesis as occurring in the time of Noah; hence often Noah’s flood; also, the great, general or universal flood.

Beowulf, 1689 (Gr.).

c. 1000.  Ags. Gosp., Luke xvii. 27. Flod com, and ealle forspilde.

c. 1175.  Lamb. Hom., 93. Hit itimode efter noes flode.

1398.  Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XIV. iv. (1495), 470. Therin [Ararat] Noes shyppe restyd after the flood.

c. 1450.  trans. De Imitatione, III. xxxvi. Euery flesshe had corrupte his wey, and þer fore folowed þe gret flode.

1533.  Elyot, Cast. Helthe (1539), 32 b. From the creation of the worlde, vntyll the vniuersall deluge or floudde, duryng which tyme, men lyued eight or nyne hunderde yeres, there was none other drinke vsed nor knowen, but water.

1571.  Campion, Hist. Irel., VII. (1633), 22. Three hundred yeares after the generall Floud, immediately after the confusion of tongues.

1734.  Pope, Ess. Man, IV. 211.

a. 1839.  Praed, Poems (1864), I. 199, ‘The Red Fisherman.’

  c.  Deucalion’s flood: a great deluge said, in Greek mythology, to have occurred in Thessaly.

1653.  Walton, Angler, i. 12. Some say, it [Angling] is as ancient as Deucalions Floud.

  5.  A profuse and violent outpouring of water; a swollen stream, a torrent; a violent downpour of rain, threatening an inundation.

c. 1205.  Lay., 3894.

1531.  Elyot, The Boke Named the Gouernour, II. xii. (1883), II. 138. The salte teares brast out of his eien in suche habundaunce, as it had ben a lande flode runnynge downe of a mountayne after a storme.

1611.  Bible, Rev. xii. 15. And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood, after the woman: that he might cause her to bee carried away of the flood.

1879.  Froude, Cæsar, xxii. 369. The melting of the snows in the mountains brought a flood down the Segre.

1880.  W. Cornw. Gloss., s.v. It’s raining a flood.

  b.  transf. in various uses: Applied e.g., to a profuse burst of tears, a copious outpouring of flame or light, a torrent of lava, an overwhelming concourse or influx of persons.

1589.  Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, III. xxii. (Arb.), 263. I haue heard of the flouds of teares.

1607.  Shaks., Timon, I. i. 42. Poet. You see this confluence, this great flood of visitors.

1711.  Pope, Temp. Fame, 477.

1837.  Dickens, Pickwick, xxxv. Miss Bolo rose from the table considerably agitated, and went straight home in a flood of tears, and a sedan chair.

1860.  Tyndall, Glac., I. ii. 12. Through jagged apertures in the clouds floods of golden light were poured down the sides of the mountain.

  c.  fig. in various applications.

1340.  Ayenb., 247. Huanne god ssel do come ope his urendes ane ulod of pays.

c. 1450.  Mirour Saluacioun, 4855.

1589.  Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, III. xxii. (Arb.), 263. I haue heard of … the flouds of eloquence, or of any thing that may resemble the nature of a water-course.

1601.  Shaks., Jul. C., III. ii. 215.

1719.  De Foe, Crusoe (1840), I. xviii. 326–7. Such was the flood of joy in my breast, that it put all my spirits in confusion.

1877.  Mrs. Oliphant, Makers Flor., x. 241. The Florentines were totally unused to the fervent natural eloquence of a preacher [Savonarola] who rejected all traditions of oratory, and, careless of fine style or graceful diction, poured forth what was in him in floods of fiery words, carried away by his own earnestness and warmth of feeling.

1894.  Gibbs, Colloq. Currency, 73. How do we know that there will be a flood of silver rather than of gold?

†6.  pl. = FLOODING 2.

1666.  G. Harvey, Morb. Angl., xxxii. (1672), 97. Others that have the good fortune of miscarrying, or being delivered, escape by means of their floods, revelling the humours from the Lungs.

1755.  in Johnson; and in mod. Dicts.

  7.  attrib. and Comb. (sense 1), as flood-stream, -wave; (sense 2), as † flood crab, † gravel; (sense 3), as flood-bickerer; (sense 4), as flood-dam, -discharge, -sluice, -water; (sense 4 b), as flood-tradition. Also flood-beat, -compelling, -like adjs.

a. 1593.  Marlowe, Ovid’s Eleg., ii. xvii.

1599.  Nashe, Lenten Stuffe, 32. A Lepantalike hoast of vnfatigable *flud bickerers and foame-curbers.

1735.  Thomson, Liberty, V. 471.

c. 1420.  Pallad. on Husb., I. 862.

1879.  Lumberman’s Gaz., 11 June, 5. They plan to build a *flood-dam.

1878.  Macm. Mag. XXXVII. Jan., 245/1. The recorded figures for the *flood discharge of the Palar River.

c. 1420.  Pallad. on Husb., I. 368. *Floode gravel is goode for coveryng.

1855.  H. Clarke, Dict., *Flood-like.

1791.  W. Jessop, Rep. Riv. Witham, 14. *Flood-sluices.

1858.  Merc. Marine Mag., V. 366. The *flood stream … sets E. by N.

1865.  E. B. Tylor, Researches into the Early History of Mankind, xi. 324. The *flood-traditions of remote regions of the world.

1791.  W. Jessop, Rep. Riv. Witham, 11. Regulate the passage of Flood waters.

1893.  G. D. Leslie, Lett. to Marco, xxii. 144. The gulls flew round and round in a flock and settled on the meadow by the flood-water.

1892.  E. Reeve, Homeward Bound, 157. Driving the water against both banks like a *flood wave.

  8.  Special comb., as flood-anchor, ‘that which the ship rides by during the flood-tide’ (Adm. Smyth); flood-arch, an arch of a bridge under which the water flows in time of flood; flood-boards, boards fitted together so as to keep out a flood; flood-bridge, a bridge for use in flood-time; flood-drift, sticks, etc., brought down by a flood; flood-flanking (see quot.); flood-land, land covered by water in time of flood; flood-loam = ALLUVIUM; flood-mark, the high-water mark; flood-plain (see quot.); flood-wheel, a water wheel; † flood-womb, the river bed; flood-wood, pieces of wood brought down by a flood; also transf. and fig. Also FLOOD-GATE, FLOOD-TIDE.

1844.  Dict. Trade, s.v. Anchor, The *flood anchor.

1891.  A. J. Foster, The Ouse, 135. The bridge of Great Barford, with its long line of *flood arches crossing the meadows in approved Ouse-bridge fashion.

1869.  Blackmore, Lorna D., i. His place it is to stand at the gate, attending to the *flood-boards grooved into one another, and so to watch the torrent’s rise, and not be washed away, it if please God he may help it.

1741.  N. Riding Rec., VIII. 237. Ordered that the repairs of the *flood-bridge at Buttercramb be referred to John Boucher and John Read, Esquires.

1869.  Blackmore, Lorna D., viii. Daring scarce to peep, I crept into the water, and lay down bodily in it, with my head between two blocks of stone, and some flood-drift combing over me.

1874.  Knight, Dict. Mech., I. 886/2. *Flood-flanking. (Hydraulic Engineering.). A mode of embanking with stiff moist clay.

a. 1881.  Rossetti, Spring, 5.

1880.  J. Geikie, Preh. Europe, 22. In fluviatile and lacustrine alluvia remains of Palæolithic man are of much rarer occurrence than in caves. They have been recorded, however, by various observers from the ancient löss or *flood-loam of the Meuse and the Rhine.

1622.  Malynes, Anc. Law-Merch., 167. Of things found vpon the Seas, or within the *flood-mark, these are of three sorts, either found on the streame floating, and then are called Floatson; or found on the Sea bottome, and drawne vp from it, and then called Lagon; or found on land, but within the Sea-flood, or cast forth there by storme and the water, and then are called Ietson.

1808.  Scott, Marm., II. ix.

1882.  Geikie, Text-Bk. Geol., III. II. xi. § 3. 383. Alluvium is laid down on the level tracts or *flood-plain over which a river spreads in flood.

1515.  in Rogers, Agric. & Prices (1866), III. 564/1. 1 pr. *flode wheels 7/.

1382.  Wyclif, Isa. xix. 7. Nakened shal be the *flod wombe, and the ryueres fro ther welle.

1839.  Marryat, Diary Amer., Ser. I. I. 229. The major part of the men were what they call here *flood-wood, that is, of all sizes and heights—a term suggested by the pieces of wood borne down by the freshets of the river, and which are of all sorts, sizes, and lengths.

1869.  Blackmore, Lorna D., x. Saddest to see was between two bars, where a fog was of rushes, and flood-wood, and wild-celery haulm, and dead crow’s-foot, who but our venerable mallard jammed in by the joint of his shoulder.