FLOODGATE • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Floodgate

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/flˈədgˌeɪt/ Listen

Floodgate

noun

Something that restrains a flood or outpouring.

Regulator consisting of a valve or gate that controls the rate of water flow through a sluice. Synonyms: head gate, penstock, sluice valve, sluicegate, water gate.

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Etymology of 'Floodgate'

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"Floodgate" Quotes from Famous Books

... with the word "Whether." We are concerned mainly with Query 11. It runs as follows:—"Whether that Independent Government which some contend for ... be not of its own nature a very seminary of schisms and dangerous divisions in the Church and State? a floodgate to let in an inundation of all manner of heresies, errors, sects, religions, destructive opinions, libertinism and lawlessness, among us, without any sufficient means of preventing or suppressing them when introduced? Whether the ...

— The Life of John Milton Vol. 3 1643-1649 • David Masson

... might? Can it naught do? can this tongue nothing speak That may provoke thine ire, thy wrath and spite?" With that he struck, his anger great to wreak, A blow, that pierced the mail and metal bright, And in his flank set ope a floodgate wide, Whereat the blood out streamed from ...

— Jerusalem Delivered • Torquato Tasso

... like a lark, disturbed by the reapers, rising from its nest in the meadows. The notes came softly, dreamily from her throat; and then as she rose slowly to her feet, clasping the spear, it was as if a floodgate had been opened and the sounds poured out, full, glorious, irresistible, ringing through the darkness and the silence of the House. Drawn to her height she stood, the helmet tipped back on her red-blonde hair, the white robes trailing about her, the spear uplifted. As ...

— The Black Cross • Olive M. Briggs