flows

Noun

flow (countable and uncountable, plural flows)

1. Movement in people or things characterized with a continuous motion, involving either a non solid mass or a multitude.
2. The movement of a real or figurative fluid.
   • Mr. Cooke at once began a tirade against the residents of Asquith for permitting a sandy and generally disgraceful condition of the roads. So roundly did he vituperate the inn management in particular, and with such a loud flow of words, that I trembled lest he should be heard on the veranda.1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC, page 48
3. A formalization of the idea of the motion of particles in a fluid, as a group action of the real numbers on a set.
   • The notion of flow is basic to the study of ordinary differential equations.
4. The rising movement of the tide.
5. Smoothness or continuity.
   • The room was small, but it had good symmetry and flow.
6. The amount of a fluid that moves or the rate of fluid movement.
   • Turn on the valve and make sure you have sufficient flow.

See all 23 meanings of flow