Category:Flow

Flow, obs.

Defn: imp. sing. of Fly, v. i. Chaucer.

flow Flow, v. i. [imp. & p. p. FFlowed; p. pr. & vb. n. Flowing.] Etym: [AS. flowan; akin to D. vloeijen, OHG. flawen to wash, Icel. floa to deluge, Gr. float, fleet. *80. Cf. Flood.]

1. To move with a continual change of place among the particles or parts, as a fluid; to change place or circulate, as a liquid; as, rivers flow from springs and lakes; tears flow from the eyes.

2. To become liquid; to melt. The mountains flowed down at thy presence. Is. lxiv. 3.

3. To pproceed; to issue forth; as, wealth flows from industry and economy. Those thousand decencies that daily flow From all her words and actions. Milton.

4. To glide along smoothly, without harshness or asperties; as, a flowing period; flowing numbers; to sound smoothly to the ear; to be uttered easily. Virgil is sweet and flowingin his hexameters. Dryden.

5. To have or be in abundance; to abound; to full, so as to run or flow over; to be copious. In that day. . . the hills shall flow with milk. Joel iii. 18. The exhilaration of a night that needed not the influence of the flowing bowl. Prof. Wilson.

6. To hang loose and waving; as, a flowing mantle; flowing locks. The imperial purple flowing in his train. A. Hamilton.

7. To rise, as the tide; -- opposed to ebb; as, the tide flows twice in twenty-four hours. The river hath thrice flowed, no ebb between. Shak.

8. To discharge blood in excess from the uterus.

flow Flow, v. t.

1. To cover with water or other liquid; to overflow; to inundate; to flood.

2. To cover with varnish.

flow Flow, n.

1. A stream of water or other fluid; a current; as, a flow of water; a flow of blood.

2. A continuous movement of something abundant; as, a flow of words.

3. Any gentle, gradual movement or procedure of thought, diction, music, or the like, resembling the quiet, steady movement of a river; a stream. The feast of reason and the flow of soul. Pope.

4. The tidal setting in of the water from the ocean to the shore. See Ebb and flow, under Ebb.

5. A low-lying piece of watery land; -- called also flow moss and flow bog. [Scot.] Jamieson.