Crossword Dictionary

What's The Definition Of Flow?

\Flow\ (fl[=o]), obs. imp. sing. of {Fly}, v. i. --Chaucer.
\Flow\ (fl[=o]), v. i. [imp. & p. p. {Flowed} (fl[=o]d); p. pr. & vb. n. {Flowing}.] [AS. fl[=o]wan; akin to D. vloeijen, OHG. flawen to wash, Icel. fl[=o]a to deluge, Gr. plw`ein to float, sail, and prob. ultimately to E. float, fleet. [root]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 proceed; 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\, v. t. 1. To cover with water or other liquid; to overflow; to inundate; to flood. 2. To cover with varnish.
\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.