flow

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English[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Old English flōwan, from Proto-Germanic *flōaną, from Proto-Indo-European *plōw-. Cognate from Proto-Indo-European (via Latin) with fluent, flux.

Noun[edit]

flow (countable and uncountable, plural flows)

  1. The movement of a real or figurative fluid.
    • 1898, Winston Churchill, chapter 4, The Celebrity:
      Mr. Cooke at once began a tirade against the residents of Asquith for permitting a sandy and generally disgraceful condition of the roads. So roundly did he vituperate the inn management in particular, and with such a loud flow of words, that I trembled lest he should be heard on the veranda.
  2. The rising movement of the tide.
  3. Smoothness or continuity.
    The room was small, but it had good symmetry and flow.
  4. The amount of a fluid that moves or the rate of fluid movement.
    Turn on the valve and make sure you have sufficient flow.
  5. (psychology) The state of being at one with.

Antonyms[edit]

  • (movement of the tide): ebb

Related terms[edit]

Translations[edit]

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.
Translations to be checked

External links[edit]

Verb[edit]

flow (third-person singular simple present flows, present participle flowing, simple past and past participle flowed)

  1. (intransitive) To move as a fluid from one position to another.
    Rivers flow from springs and lakes.
    Tears flow from the eyes.
  2. (intransitive) To proceed; to issue forth.
    Wealth flows from industry and economy.
    • Milton
      Those thousand decencies that daily flow / From all her words and actions.
  3. (intransitive) To move or match smoothly, gracefully, or continuously.
    The writing is grammatically correct, but it just doesn't flow.
    • Dryden
      Virgil is sweet and flowing in his hexameters.
  4. (intransitive) To have or be in abundance; to abound, so as to run or flow over.
    • Bible, Joel iii. 18
      In that day […] the hills shall flow with milk.
    • Prof. Wilson
      the exhilaration of a night that needed not the influence of the flowing bowl
  5. (intransitive) To hang loosely and wave.
    a flowing mantle; flowing locks
    • A. Hamilton
      the imperial purple flowing in his train
  6. (intransitive) To rise, as the tide; opposed to ebb.
    The tide flows twice in twenty-four hours.
    • Shakespeare
      The river hath thrice flowed, no ebb between.
  7. (transitive, computing) To arrange (text in a wordprocessor, etc.) so that it wraps neatly into a designated space; to reflow.
  8. (transitive) To cover with water or other liquid; to overflow; to inundate; to flood.
  9. (transitive) To cover with varnish.
  10. (intransitive) To discharge excessive blood from the uterus.

Translations[edit]

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.
Translations to be checked

Anagrams[edit]

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