Meaning of flow in English

Table of contents
  1. Pronunciation
  2. Verb
    1. Etymology
    2. Definitions
  3. Noun
    1. Definitions

  1. Pronunciation

    /floʊ/

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  1. Verb

    flow

    Etymology

    Old English flōwan, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch vloeien, also to flood

    Definitions

    1. move or progress freely as if in a stream

    Examples

    • « The crowd flowed out of the stadium »

    Derived terms

  2. 2. move along, of liquids

    Examples

    • « Water flowed into the cave »
    • « the Missouri feeds into the Mississippi »

    Derived terms

  3. 3. cause to flow

    Examples

    • « The artist flowed the washes on the paper »

    Derived terms

  4. 4. be abundantly present

    Examples

    • « The champagne flowed at the wedding »

    Derived terms

  5. 5. fall or flow in a certain way

    Examples

    • « This dress hangs well »
    • « Her long black hair flowed down her back »

    Derived terms

  6. 6. cover or swamp with water

    Derived terms

  7. 7. undergo menstruation

    Examples

    • « She started menstruating at the age of 11 »

    Derived terms

  8. Noun

    flow

    Definitions

    1. the motion characteristic of fluids (liquids or gases)

    Derived terms

  9. 2. the amount of fluid that flows in a given time

    Derived terms

  10. 3. the act of flowing or streaming

    Examples

    • « continuous progression »

    Derived terms

  11. 4. any uninterrupted stream or discharge
  12. 5. something that resembles a flowing stream in moving continuously

    Examples

    • « a stream of people emptied from the terminal »
    • « the museum had planned carefully for the flow of visitors »

    Derived terms

  13. 6. dominant course (suggestive of running water) of successive events or ideas

    Examples

    • « two streams of development run through American history »
    • « stream of consciousness »
    • « the flow of thought »
    • « the current of history »
  14. 7. the monthly discharge of blood from the uterus of nonpregnant women from puberty to menopause

    Examples

    • « 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 »

    Derived terms

Famous quotes

  • « Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don't resist them - that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like. »
    Lao Tzu
  • « But I liked Yeats! That wild Irishman. I really loved his love of language, his flow. His chaotic ideas seemed to me just the right thing for a poet. Passion! He was always on the right side. He may be wrongheaded, but his heart was always on the right side. He wrote beautiful poetry. »
    Chinua Achebe
  • « The opposite for courage is not cowardice, it is conformity. Even a dead fish can go with the flow. »
    Jim Hightower
  • « I was for civil unions and believed strongly that the flow of benefits and protections that would be provided in a civil union for same-sex couples, the decisions that have to be made, when health hardships are faced, when economic hardships are faced, I wanted all of those protections. I never strayed from them. »
    Harold Ford
  • « When I am traveling in a carriage, or walking after a good meal, or during the night when I cannot sleep it is on such occasions that ideas flow best and most abundantly. »
    Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

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