flood

flood — verb

1. When a river, heavy rain, or a broken pipe floods a place, water covers land tha

1.verbtransitive / intransitiveB1
Definition

When a river, heavy rain, or a broken pipe floods a place, water covers land that is normally dry, often damaging buildings and roads.

Example

Heavy rain flooded the streets of Manila, leaving cars trapped in the water.

flood + place as object

After three days of continuous rain, the river flooded and covered the nearby farms.

Common collocations
  • flood + place
  • flood (intransitive) — used of rivers, basements, streets
Synonyms
  • inundate

    more formal; often used in news reports or technical writing

  • submerge

    suggests being completely underwater, not just covered

  • overflow

    focuses on water exceeding a boundary like a riverbank or container

Antonyms
  • drain

    to remove water from a place

  • recede

    when flood waters move back

Grammar Patterns

flood + object

flood (no object)

Usage Note

Can be used transitively ('the river flooded the town') or intransitively ('the basement flooded'). The intransitive use is very common in everyday conversation.

Common Mistakes

The heavy rain flooded out my house.
The heavy rain flooded my house.
'flood out' means to force people to leave because of a flood, not simply to cover a place with water.

2. When people or things flood a place or flood into it, they arrive in such large

2.verbtransitiveB2
Definition

When people or things flood a place or flood into it, they arrive in such large numbers that the area becomes full or difficult to manage.

Example

Thousands of fans flooded into the stadium hours before the concert began.

flood into [place]

Applications flooded the university admissions office after the deadline was extended.

Common collocations
  • flood into + place
  • flood + place with + people/things
  • be flooded with + letters/calls/applications
Synonyms
  • pour into

    more specific to movement, like a continuous flow

  • overwhelm

    focuses on the effect of being too much to handle

  • swamp

    suggests being weighed down or unable to cope

Antonyms

Grammar Patterns

flood into + place

flood + place

be flooded with + noun

Usage Note

Frequently used in the passive form with 'with': 'the office was flooded with applications'. The intransitive form uses 'into': 'donations flooded into the charity'.

Common Mistakes

Letters flooded to the editor.
Letters flooded the editor's office.
the direct object should be the place that receives the large number, not the person.

3. To supply or sell such a large amount of a product that the price drops or local

3.verbtransitiveB2
Definition

To supply or sell such a large amount of a product that the price drops or local goods cannot compete in the market.

Example

Cheap imports flooded the European steel market, forcing some factories to close.

flood + market + with + goods

The company flooded stores with the new phone, hoping to beat its competitors.

Common collocations
  • flood + market/area + with + goods
  • flood the market
Synonyms
  • saturate

    more technical; means to fill a market completely

  • deluge

    more formal; suggests an overwhelming oversupply

Antonyms
  • ration

    to limit supply deliberately

Grammar Patterns

flood + market + with + goods

Usage Note

Used almost exclusively in business and economics contexts. The object is typically a market or region, and the goods follow 'with'.

Common Mistakes

They flooded the market cheap phones.
They flooded the market with cheap phones.
The goods must be introduced by 'with'.
Phrasal verbs

flood out

phrasal verb

To force someone to leave their home because of a flood.

The heavy rains flooded out hundreds of families living near the river.

flood back

phrasal verb

When memories or feelings flood back, they suddenly return in a powerful way.

When Lara visited her old school, memories of her childhood flooded back.

flood — noun

Word family

  • flooded
    adjectiveB1
  • flooding
    nounB1
  • floodwater
    nounB1
  • floodplain
    nounB2
  • floodgate
    nounB2
  • flash flood
    nounB2
  • floodlight
    nounC1

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

Flood is the most general and common word — it can describe any large amount of water covering normally dry land, from a broken pipe in a basement to a natural disaster covering a whole region. Deluge is more formal and dramatic, often used in news reporting to emphasise suddenness and severity ('a deluge of rain caused chaos'). A flash flood is a specific type of rapid, dangerous flood caused by intense rain over a short period, usually in a small area. Inundation is a technical or formal term for the action of flooding, more common in scientific writing ('coastal inundation due to rising sea levels'). Overflow occurs when water spills over a boundary such as a riverbank or dam, and does not always imply damage. Example: 'The river overflowed its banks' (no damage necessarily), vs 'The town was hit by a devastating flood' (serious damage).

flood ↗delugeflash floodinundationoverflow ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

  • flood damage
  • flood water
  • flood warning
  • flood risk
  • flood zone
  • flood victim
  • flood relief

Adverbs

  • badly flooded
  • completely flooded
  • seasonally flooded
  • repeatedly flooded

Phrases

Prepositions

  • flood of
  • flood in
  • flood into
  • flood with

Etymology

Proto-Indo-EuropeanProto-GermanicOld EnglishEnglish

Flood comes from the Old English word flōd, which goes back to a Proto-Germanic root *flōduz. This is related to the verb 'flow' and the word 'float', all coming from an ancient Indo-European root *plew- meaning 'to flow, to pour, to swim'. English cousins include 'flow', 'float', 'fleet', and 'pluvial' (relating to rain). The basic idea of 'moving water' has been in the word since the earliest English writings, before the 8th century.