flow Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun the motion characteristic of fluids (liquids or gases)
    flowing.
  2. noun the amount of fluid that flows in a given time
    flow rate; rate of flow.
  3. noun the act of flowing or streaming; continuous progression
    stream.
  4. noun any uninterrupted stream or discharge
  5. noun something that resembles a flowing stream in moving continuously
    stream.
    • a stream of people emptied from the terminal
    • the museum had planned carefully for the flow of visitors
  6. noun dominant course (suggestive of running water) of successive events or ideas
    current; stream.
    • two streams of development run through American history
    • stream of consciousness
    • the flow of thought
    • the current of history
  7. noun the monthly discharge of blood from the uterus of nonpregnant women from puberty to menopause
    menstruation; period; menstruum; menses; catamenia.
    • the women were sickly and subject to excessive menstruation
    • a woman does not take the gout unless her menses be stopped"--Hippocrates
    • the semen begins to appear in males and to be emitted at the same time of life that the catamenia begin to flow in females"--Aristotle
  8. verb move or progress freely as if in a stream
    flux.
    • The crowd flowed out of the stadium
  9. verb move along, of liquids
    feed; run; course.
    • Water flowed into the cave
    • the Missouri feeds into the Mississippi
  10. verb cause to flow
    • The artist flowed the washes on the paper
  11. verb be abundantly present
    • The champagne flowed at the wedding
  12. verb fall or flow in a certain way
    hang; fall.
    • This dress hangs well
    • Her long black hair flowed down her back
  13. verb cover or swamp with water
  14. verb undergo menstruation
    menstruate.
    • She started menstruating at the age of 11

WordNet

Flow
Definitions
obs.
  1. imp. sing. of Fly, v. i. Chaucer.
Flow intransitive verb
Etymology
AS. flowan; akin to D. vloeijen, OHG. flawen to wash, Icel. floa to deluge, Gr. to float, sail, and prob. ultimately to E. float, fleet. *80. Cf. Flood.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle FFlowed ; present participle & verbal noun Flowing
Definitions
  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 transitive verb
Definitions
  1. To cover with water or other liquid; to overflow; to inundate; to flood.
  2. To cover with varnish.
Flow noun
Definitions
  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.

Webster 1913