Flow
Pronunciation
- enPR: flÅ, IPA: /fləʊ/
- Homophones: floe
- Rhymes: -əʊ
Origin
From Old English flÅwan, from Proto-Germanic *flÅanÄ…, from Proto-Indo-European *plÅw-. Cognate from Proto-Indo-European (via Latin) with fluent, flux.
Full definition of flow
Noun
flow
(countable and uncountable; plural flows)- The movement of a real or figurative fluid.
- 1898, Winston Churchill, The Celebrity Chapter 4, 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.
- The rising movement of the tide.
- Smoothness or continuity.The room was small, but it had good symmetry and flow.
- The amount of a fluid that moves or the rate of fluid movement.Turn on the valve and make sure you have sufficient flow.
- (psychology) The state of being at one with.
Antonyms
- (movement of the tide) ebb
Related terms
Verb
- (intransitive) To move as a fluid from one position to another.Rivers flow from springs and lakes.Tears flow from the eyes.
- (intransitive) To proceed; to issue forth.Wealth flows from industry and economy.
- MiltonThose thousand decencies that daily flow
From all her words and actions. - (intransitive) To move or match smoothly, gracefully, or continuously.The writing is grammatically correct, but it just doesn't flow.
- DrydenVirgil is sweet and flowing in his hexameters.
- (intransitive) To have or be in abundance; to abound, so as to run or flow over.
- Bible, Joel iii. 18In that day ... the hills shall flow with milk.
- Prof. Wilsonthe exhilaration of a night that needed not the influence of the flowing bowl
- (intransitive) To hang loosely and wave.a flowing mantle; flowing locks
- A. Hamiltonthe imperial purple flowing in his train
- (intransitive) To rise, as the tide; opposed to ebb.The tide flows twice in twenty-four hours.
- ShakespeareThe river hath thrice flowed, no ebb between.
- (transitive, computing) To arrange (text in a wordprocessor, etc.) so that it wraps neatly into a designated space; to reflow.
- (transitive) To cover with water or other liquid; to overflow; to inundate; to flood.
- (transitive) To cover with varnish.
- (intransitive) To discharge excessive blood from the uterus.