Word.ws English Dictionary

floud

floud is the obsolete spelling of flood.

Meaning of flood

Noun

flood (plural floods)

  1. An overflow of a large amount of water (usually disastrous) from a lake or other body of water due to excessive rainfall or other input of water.
    • a covenant never to destroy the earth again by flood1667, John Milton, “Book X”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished...
  2. (figuratively) A large number or quantity of anything appearing more rapidly than can easily be dealt with.
    • a flood of complaints
  3. The flowing in of the tide, opposed to the ebb.
    • There is a tide in the affairs of men, / Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune.1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
  4. A floodlight.
  5. Menstrual discharge; menses.
  6. (obsolete) Water as opposed to land.
    • Who beheld from the safe shore their floating carcasses and broken chariot-wheels. So thick bestrown, abject and lost, lay these, covering the flood, under amazement of their hideous change.1667, John Milton, “(please specify the page number)”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker...

See all 13 meanings of flood

Forms of floud

pluralflouds

Questions about floud

What is floud the obsolete spelling of?
Floud is the obsolete spelling of flood.

Words near floud in the dictionary

  1. flotten
  2. Flottum
  3. Flottums
  4. FLOTUS
  5. FLOTUSes
  6. floud
  7. flouds
  8. flouffy
  9. flounce
  10. flounce post
  11. flounce posts

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: floud (page history and authors); flood (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “floud.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/floud. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.