flooded

1. 1
   adjective

   Filled with or submerged under water from heavy rain or an overflowing river.

   The flooded streets forced commuters to abandon their cars.

   Rescue teams reached the flooded village by boat.

   Similarsubmerged, inundated, waterlogged, swamped

   Oppositedry

2. 2
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of flood.

   The melting snow flooded the lowlands within hours.

   The burst pipe flooded the entire ground floor.

   Note

   Past tense and past participle share one spelling. You see it in the river flooded the fields, the fields have flooded and the fields were flooded. That last pattern overlaps with the adjective, but only the adjective grades: more flooded, most flooded. The verb also reaches beyond water. Users can flood a chat with pasted lines of text, and it can mean to bleed profusely, as after childbirth.

3. 3
   adjective

   Overwhelmed by having far more of something than one can manage or process.

   The office was flooded with applications within a day of the posting.

   Editors are flooded with submissions every contest season.

   Similarswamped, inundated, overwhelmed

   Note

   Here the water becomes a metaphor. The overflow of the literal rain-and-river sense is carried over to calls, letters, requests: anything that pours in faster than it can be handled. It almost always takes with, which names what is arriving: flooded with calls, flooded with applications. The image is a sudden surge more than a steady burden.

4. 4
   adjective

   Containing more fluid than is proper, often enough to stop something from functioning.

   Mechanics warned that the flooded carburetor needed time to dry out.

   The patient's flooded lungs required immediate drainage.

   Similarsaturated

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