- flow
- flow vb issue, emanate, proceed, stem, derive, *spring, arise, rise, originateflow n Flow, stream, current, flood, tide, flux are comparable when meaning something issuing or moving in a manner like or suggestive of running water.Flow may apply to the issuing or moving mass or to the kind of motion which characterizes it, but in either case it implies the type of motion characteristic of the movement of a fluid; the term may suggest either a gentle or a rapid pace and either a copious or a meager supply, but it consistently implies an unbroken continuity of the particles or parts{
the flow of his ideas exceeded his capacity for setting them down in writing
}{she expressed herself in a flow of words
}{the hardly perceptible flow of a mountain glacier
}{the thought of never ceasing life as it expresses itself in the flow of the seasons— Anderson
}{she would tell you what she thought about the world and its ways in a flow of racy comment— Rose Macaulay
}Stream implies a flow characteristic of a body of running water (as a river) or of water pouring forth from a source or outlet (as a fountain or a faucet). The term places emphasis more upon the volume, the duration, and the constant succession and change of particles than upon the type of motion{for weeks after the surrender a stream of refugees crossed the country's border
}{music, acting, poetry proceed in the one mighty stream; sculpture, painting, all the arts of design, in the other— Ellis
}{novelists who present their characters not in action, but through the stream of consciousness of each
}{let loose a stream of commentary and discussion— Southern
}Current differs from stream in laying greater stress on the direction or course of the movement implied and in carrying stronger suggestions of its force or velocity{streams of people passed him in either direction, but he was finally caught by the current of those moving south
}{he could not maintain his position against the current of opposition
}{currents of cold air swept in from the north
}{he might drift some distance with the democratic current of the age, and then, with Gladstone, grow affrighted— Kirk
}{O1ds might have won Ford's success had his mind been more sealed against the currents to which it was exposed— Burlingame
}Flood is often used in place of flow or stream to imply extreme copiousness in the supply or to attribute to it an overwhelming or torrential power{it is not, he then feels with a sudden flood of emotion, that America is home, but that home is America— Brownell
}{this poem called forth floods of abuse— Day Lewis
}Tide applies to something that flows or courses like an ocean tide and suggests either an alternation of directions{swayed by the sweeping of the tides of air— Bryant
}or a power to suck one into its course by the force of its outward or inward pull{Stanley was caught in the tide of war fervor— Rose Macaulay
}Flux, more specifically than stream, stresses the unceasing change in the parts, particles, or elements and, sometimes, in the direction of what flows{for this and that way swings the flux of mortal things though moving inly to one far-set goal— Arnold
}{how idle is it to commiserate them for their instability, when not stability but flux is their ideal!— Brownell
}Flux often specifically applies to the outward aspect or appearance which is constantly changing in contrast to its real and abiding nature{to distinguish between the transient, unsatisfying flux of things, and the permanent, satisfying reality which lies behind it— Inge
}Analogous words: *succession, progression, series, sequence: continuity, Continuation, continuance
New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.
