Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A gate designed to be opened to permit the outflow of water, or to be shut to prevent it; hence, any opening or opportunity for indiscriminate flow or passage; a great vent.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Alternative spelling of floodgate.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • The impressive results opened a flood-gate of bids, rocketing Treasury prices into gains following the auction.

    Treasury Prices Surge After Strong Note Sale Cynthia Lin 2011

  • Preachers with pulpits full of confused and mourning Americans opened a flood-gate of condemnation against pot-smoking, atheist, radical hippies and all "suspicious acting and looking" people who could conveniently be lumped in with them.

    Rev. Dr. Cindi Love: Forty Years of Fear: Kent State in Retrospect Rev. Dr. Cindi Love 2010

  • The instant he had done so, the affrighted janitor fled, like one who has drawn the bolts of a flood-gate, and expects to be overwhelmed by the rushing inundation.

    The Abbot 2008

  • French principles in public or private life — and, if women were allowed to plead their feelings, as an excuse or palliation of infidelity, it was opening a flood-gate for immorality.

    Maria; or The Wrongs of Woman 2002

  • Meeting his gaze, she unbarred a flood-gate of happy tenderness in her eyes.

    Hilda A Story of Calcutta Sara Jeannette Duncan

  • It is almost impossible to believe that human nature can endure such hardships and sufferings as the slaves have to go through: I have seen them driven into a ditch in a rice swamp to bail out the water, in order to put down a flood-gate, when they had to break the ice, and there stand in the water among the ice until it was bailed out.

    The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Part 3 of 4 American Anti-Slavery Society

  • It is almost impossible to believe that human nature can endure such hardships and sufferings as the slaves have to go through: I have seen them driven into a ditch in a rice swamp to bail out the water, in order to put down a flood-gate, when they had to break the ice, and there stand in the water among the ice until it was bailed out.

    The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Omnibus American Anti-Slavery Society

  • Each field has a small flood-gate called a "trunk" ....

    A Woman Rice Planter 1914

  • Each field has a small flood-gate, called a "trunk."

    A Woman Rice Planter 1914

  • The pathos of her appearance opened a very flood-gate of tears, which I could not check.

    A belle of the fifties : memoirs of Mrs. Clay, of Alabama, covering social and political life in Washington and the South, 1853-66, 1905

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