Overflowing of land by water from a swollen river or other inland water.
1390. Gower, Conf., III. 126. Februar, which … with londflodes in his rage At fordes letteth the passage.
1523. Fitzherb., Husb., § 54. Grasse, that the lande-floudde renneth ouer, is verye ylle for shepe, bycause of the sande and fylthe that stycketh vppon it.
1646. Fuller, Wounded Consc. (1841), 303. Like a land-flood, quickly come, quickly gone.
1720. De Foe, Capt. Singleton, ix. (1840), 166. The rivers were … swelled with the landfloods.
1833. Lyell, Princ. Geol., III. 181. The land-floods which accompany earthquakes.
attrib. 1852. Wiggins, Embanking, 69. Any … rush of tidal or land-flood waters against the bank.
b. fig.
1579. Fenton, Guicciard., VII. (1599), 296. The furie of Almaines entring Italie as a landflood.
a. 1628. Preston, New Covt. (1630), 83. It is but a Pond, it is but a land-floud, the spring of comfort belongs only to the Saints.
1830. Scott, Demonol., viii. 242. Some of the country clergy were carried away by the landflood of superstition.
