[f. as prec. + -ING2.]
1. That flows, in various senses of the vb. Flowing metal: see quot. 1888.
a. 1000. Byrhtnoth, 65 (Gr.). Þær com flowende flod æfter ebban.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 20882 (Gött.). Apon þe flouand see he ȝode.
1388. Wyclif, Isa. lxvi. 12. A flowynge streem.
1509. Hawes, The Pastime of Pleasure, XXXIV. xxii. After an ebbe there commeth a flowyng tyde.
1698. Froger, Voy., 76. Where the Shallops ride at flowing Water.
1700. Blackmore, Job, 2.
| Their beauteous Sisters they as oft invite, | |
| To pass the flowing Hours in soft delight. |
1825. A. Cunningham, Song.
| A wet sheet and a flowing sea | |
| A wind that follows fast | |
| And fills the white and rustling sail | |
| And bends the gallant mast. |
1841–4. Emerson, Ess., Poet, Wks. (Bohn), I. 166. Plato defines a line to be a flowing point.
1867. Ure’s Dict. Arts (ed. 6), III. 404, s.v. Petroleum, The first great flowing well at Enniskillen.
1888. Lockwood’s Dict. Terms Mech. Engin., Flowing Metals, metals of the ductile class which … change their form, under impact, or tensile or compressive strain.
† b. Math. Continuously varying by infinitesimal quantities. (See FLUXION.) Obs.
1704. Hayes, Fluxions, i. 4. The respective flowing Quantities AP, PM, AM.
1758. J. Lyons, Fluxions, 4. If two flowing quantities x and y are to each other in a given ratio.
1807. Hutton, Course Math., II. 278. The final letters of the alphabet, z, y, x, u, &c, are used to denote variable or flowing quantities.
1842. Francis, Dict. Arts, etc., Fluent, or Flowing Quantity. In mathematics, is a variable quantity, which is considered as increasing or decreasing.
† 2. Fluctuating, unstable, inconstant. Obs.
1504. Atkynson, trans. De Imitatione, I. xxv. 176. His flowynge and vnstedfast mynde was paysed.
1536. Bellenden, trans. Boece, XVI. xv. For the mynd of commoun pepyll are euir flowand mair inconstant than wynd.
3. Of language, etc. Gliding easily and smoothly, fluent. Of a person: Having a flowing style (arch.).
1553. T. Wilson, Rhet. (1580), 206. So that for the flowyng stile and full sentence, crept in Minstrels elocution.
1614. Bp. Hall, A Recollection of such Treatises, 495. Resolute Hierome, or flowing Chrysostome.
1624. B. Jonson, Fortunate Isles. In rime! fine tinckling rime! and flowand verse!
1627. Hakewill, Apol., I. v. (1635), 62. This discourse of Cyprian, and the excellent flowres of Rhetorique in it, shew him to haue beene a sweete and powerfull Oratour, of a great wit, a flowing eloquence.
1718. Prior, Charity, 1.
| Did sweeter Sounds adorn my flowing Tongue, | |
| Than ever Man pronounc’d, or Angel sung. |
1782. Cowper, Table T., 741.
| For, after all, if merely to beguile | |
| By flowing numbers and a flowery style | |
| The tædium that the lazy rich endure, | |
| Which now and then sweet poetry may cure. |
1827. Carlyle, Misc. (1857), I. 20. Undoubtedly he has a flowing pen, and is at home in this province.
1832. L. Hunt, Sonnets, Poems, 212.
| And helps to bless | |
| Cullen’s dear memory, with his heart’s address, | |
| And flowing Garth. |
quasi-adv.
1706. Pope, Let. Walsh, 22 Oct. In describing a gliding Stream, the Numbers shou’d run easy and flowing; in describing a rought Torrent or Deluge, sonorous and swelling, and so the rest.
b. Of personal carriage and demeanour: Easy, graceful, smooth.
a. 1611. Beaum. & Fl., Maid’s Trag., IV. i.
| Thou art yong and hansome, | |
| A Lady of a sweete complexion, | |
| And such a flowing carriage, that it cannot | |
| Chuse but inflame a Kingdome. |
1628. Clarenden, in Digby, Voy. Medit. (1868), Preface, p. xx. A flowing courtesy and civility, and such a volubility of language as surprised and delighted.
1766. Fordyce, Serm. Yng. Wom. (1767), I. i. 17. The heart itself is moulded; habits of undissembled courtesy are formed; a certain flowing urbanity is acquired.
1870. Dickens, E. Drood, iv. A certain gravely flowing action with his hands, as if he were presently going to Confirm the individual with whom he holds discourse.
4. Of lines or curves, also of objects with reference to their contour: Smoothly continuous and free from rigidity or stiffness. Flowing tracery (in Arch.: see quot. 1815).
1709. Prior, Ode to Howard, iii.
| The am’rous Master own’d her potent Eyes; | |
| Sigh’d when he look’d, and trembled as he drew; | |
| Each flowing Line confirm’d his first Surprize, | |
| And as the Piece advanc’d, the Passion grew. |
1812–6. J. Smith, The Panorama of Science and Art, I. 132. Tracery is either flowing, where the lines branch out into leaves, arches, &c.; or perpendicular, where the mullions are continued through in straight lines.
1816. L. Hunt, Rimini, I. 203.
| The flowing back, firm chest, and fetlocks clean, | |
| The branching veins ridging the glossy lean. |
1853. Turner, Dom. Archit., III. II. vii. 315. The Chapel is Early English, with flowing windows inserted at the East and North.
1864. Tennyson, Aylmer’s F., 653.
| Thy God is far diffused in noble groves | |
| And princely halls, and farms, and flowing lawns. |
5. Of hair, garments, etc.: Swaying loosely and gracefully; waving, unconfined, streaming.
1606. B. Jonson, Hymenæi, Wks. (Rtldg.), 558. Beneath that, another flowing garment, of watchet cloth of silver, laced with gold.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Pastorals, VII. 88.
| With Hazle Phyllis crowns her flowing Hair; | |
| And while she loves that common Wreath to wear, | |
| Nor Bays, nor Myrtle Boughs, with Hazle shall compare. |
1782. Cowper, Gilpin, 45.
| John Gilpin at his horse’s side | |
| Seiz’d fast the flowing mane; | |
| And up he got in haste to ride, | |
| But soon came down again. |
1869. Boutell, Arms & Arm., x. 192–3. About 1325 the long and flowing surcoat, open in front, appears to have been superseded by an extraordinary garment called the cyclas.
b. Naut. Flowing sail, sheet. (See quots. 1769, 1841, and cf. FLOWING vbl. sb. 3.)
1748. Anson’s Voy., II. ii. 130. We were pleasingly surprized, on the morning of the 23d of July, to see her open the N. W. point of the bay with a flowing sail.
1769. Falconer, Dict. Marine (1776), s.v. A ship is therefore said to have a flowing sheet when the wind crosses the line of her course nearly at right angles.
1825. H. B. Gascoigne, Nav. Fame, 91.
| With flowing sails, before the eastern breeze, | |
| They seek their station on the western seas. |
1841. R. H. Dana, Seaman’s Man., 105. Flowing Sheet. When a vessel has the wind free, and the lee clews eased off.
fig. 1833. Marryat, P. Simple, xxxii. Didn’t you say that the bill had been sent in, through you, seven or eight times, and that the captain had paid it with a flowing sheet?
1861. Gen. P. Thompson, Audi Alteram Partem, III. clxi. 174. To wait till the folly could be put down with a flowing sail.
6. Rising like the tide; full to overflowing, brimming, abundant, copious.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 121. Sensualite with all her flowynge voluptuous desyres.
1613. Shaks., Hen. VIII., II. iii. 62.
| The Kings Maiesty | |
| Commends his good opinion of you, to you; and | |
| Doe’s purpose honour to you no lesse flowing, | |
| Then Marchionesse of Pembrooke. |
1644. Milton, Educ. (1738), 136. Some allured to the trade of Law, grounding their purposes not on the prudent and heavenly contemplation of justice and equity which was never taught them, but on the promising and pleasing thoughts of litigious terms, fat contentions, and flowing fees.
1702. Addison, Dialogues upon … Medals, ii. Wks. 1721, I. 474. Horace, when he speaks of the moderation to be used in a flowing fortune.
1786. Burns, Brigs Ayr, 221.
| All-cheering Plenty, with her flowing horn, | |
| Led yellow Autumn wreath’d with nodding corn. |
1871. Smiles, Charac., ii. (1876), 49. She [Goethe’s mother] was full of joyous flowing mother-wit, and possessed in a high degree the art of stimulating young and active minds, instructing them in the science of life out of the treasures of her abundant experience.
¶ 7. Flowing hope: mispron. of forlorn hope.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., Flowing-hope: see Forlorn Hope.
1889. in Barrère & Leland, Slang. Dict., Flowing hope (army), a term for forlorn hope.
Hence Flowingly adv., in a flowing manner; Flowingness, the quality or state of being flowing.
a. 1603. T. Cartwright, Confut. Rhem. N. T. (1618), 432. Yet can they not come so flowingly to her by some, as by all the pipes of the Churches exercises, which the Lord hath appointed to convey them by.
a. 1712. W. Nichols, Def. Doct. Ch. Eng., Introd. (1715), 118. His smooth Language and flowingness of his easie Eloquence.
1804. Southey, in Robberds, Mem. W. Taylor, I. 495. Say And Sinai instead of Even; for it more rapidly combines the thought, and more flowingly fills the sentence.
1852. H. Spencer, Gracefulness, Ess. 1891, II. 384. A leading trait of grace is continuity, flowingness.
1880. G. Meredith, Trag. Com., xi. (1892), 158. He was pleased to hail her as his fair secretary, and when the letters were unimportant she wrote flowingly, happy to be praised.
