flood gate

Noun

floodgate (plural floodgates)

1. An adjustable gate or valve used to control the flow of water through a sluice.
   • At the start of the Second World War floodgates would be installed at the ends of the under-Thames sections of the Bakerloo and Northern lines to save them from inundation should bombs damage the riverbed.2012, Andrew Martin, Underground Overground: A passenger's history of the Tube, Profile Books, →ISBN, page 31
2. (figuratively, extension) Anything that controls or limits an outpouring of people, emotion, etc.
   • “The floodgates for advertising on cable are down,” says Michael Dann, a leading consultant on cable television.1981 July 26, Sandra Salmans, “Will cable TV be invaded by commercials?”, in New York Times
3. (obsolete) A stream that passes through a floodgate; a torrent.
   • Out of her gored wound the cruell ſteel / He lightly ſnatcht, and did the floodgate ſtop / VVith his faire garment: then gan ſoftly feel her feeble pulſe, to proue if any drop / Of liuing blood yet in her veynes did hop1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 43, page 199

See all 4 meanings of floodgate