| 1. | a great flowing or overflowing of water, esp. over land not usually submerged. |
| 2. | any great outpouring or stream: a flood of tears. |
| 3. | the Flood, the universal deluge recorded as having occurred in the days of Noah. Gen. 7. |
| 4. | the rise or flowing in of the tide (opposed to ebb ). |
| 5. | a floodlight. |
| 6. | Archaic. a large body of water. |
| 7. | to overflow in or cover with a flood; fill to overflowing: Don't flood the bathtub. |
| 8. | to cover or fill, as if with a flood: The road was flooded with cars. |
| 9. | to overwhelm with an abundance of something: to be flooded with mail. |
| 10. | Automotive. to supply too much fuel to (the carburetor), so that the engine fails to start. |
| 11. | to floodlight. |
| 12. | to flow or pour in or as if in a flood. |
| 13. | to rise in a flood; overflow. |
| 14. | Pathology.
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| flood (flŭd) Pronunciation Key
A temporary rise of the water level, as in a river or lake or along a seacoast, resulting in its spilling over and out of its natural or artificial confines onto land that is normally dry. Floods are usually caused by excessive runoff from precipitation or snowmelt, or by coastal storm surges or other tidal phenomena. ◇ Floods are sometimes described according to their statistical occurrence. A fifty-year flood is a flood having a magnitude that is reached in a particular location on average once every fifty years. In any given year there is a two percent statistical chance of the occurrence of a fifty-year flood and a one percent chance of a hundred-year flood. |