FLOW

imp. sing. of Fly, v. i. Chaucer.

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.

To become liquid; to melt. The mountains flowed down at thy presence. Is. lxiv. 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.

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.

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.

To hang loose and waving; as, a flowing mantle; flowing locks. The imperial purple flowing in his train. A. Hamilton.

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.

To discharge blood in excess from the uterus.

To cover with water or other liquid; to overflow; to inundate; to flood.

To cover with varnish.

A stream of water or other fluid; a current; as, a flow of water; a flow of blood.

A continuous movement of something abundant; as, a flow of words.

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.

The tidal setting in of the water from the ocean to the shore. See Ebb and flow, under Ebb.

A low-lying piece of watery land; -- called also flow moss and flow bog. [Scot.] Jamieson.