floodgate
noun
- adjustable gate used to control water flow
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /ˈflʌdˌɡeɪt/ / /ˈflʌdɡeɪt/
name
Etymology: From floodgate.
- A series of allegations of corruption, mismanagement, and irregularities in flood control projects in the Philippines during and before the administration of President Bongbong Marcos.
noun
Etymology: From Middle English flodegate, flodgate, flodeyate, floodȝate, flodȝete, equivalent to flood + gate.
- 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.”
- 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.”
- 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 hop”
“The accuſation conſiſting of thoſe three articles, was moſt true: your doctrine was ſcādalous, it offred much offence, being generally diſtaſted; and was erroneous, being detected to be the floodgate of Traitors ſtaiers, looſing in ſome ſuppoſititious doctrines, and many blaſphemous arrogating much to man, derogating much from God.”