Word.ws English Dictionary

open the floodgates

open the floodgates verb: to allow some action to proceed more swiftly or to a greater extent.

Verb

open the floodgates (third-person singular simple present opens the floodgates, present participle opening the floodgates, simple past and past participle opened the floodgates)

  1. (idiomatic) To allow some action to proceed more swiftly or to a greater extent.
    • Where we open up the floodgates, freedom reigns supreme.
      Fire on the hemisphere below.1987 September 1, R.E.M., “Welcome to the Occupation”, in Document

Forms of open the floodgates

third-person singular presentopens the floodgates
present participleopening the floodgates
past participleopened the floodgates
pastopened the floodgates

Origin of open the floodgates

Literally, to allow floodwater that had been held back to flow freely.

Questions about open the floodgates

What does open the floodgates mean?
Open the floodgates means to allow some action to proceed more swiftly or to a greater extent.
What part of speech is open the floodgates?
Open the floodgates is a verb.
What is the past tense of open the floodgates?
The past tense of open the floodgates is opened the floodgates.

Words near open the floodgates in the dictionary

  1. open the attack
  2. open the ball
  3. open the batting
  4. open the door
  5. open the face
  6. open the floodgates
  7. open the kimono
  8. open the range
  9. open the schools
  10. open the way
  11. open time

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: open the floodgates (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-open the floodgates.ogg.

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