Devolution and Flood

noun

• The process of declining from a higher to a lower level of effective power or vitality or essential quality.
  • synonyms: degeneration
• The delegation of authority (especially from a central to a regional government. ).
  • synonyms: devolvement

• (n.) The act of rolling down.
• (n.) Transference from one person to another; a passing or devolving upon a successor.

DEVOLUTION is the delegation of authority from higher to lower levels.

noun

• The rising of a body of water and its overflowing onto normally dry land.
  • usage: "plains fertilized by annual inundations"
  • synonyms: inundation, deluge, alluvion
• An overwhelming number or amount.
  • usage: "a flood of requests"; "a torrent of abuse"
  • synonyms: inundation, deluge, torrent
• Light that is a source of artificial illumination having a broad beam; used in photography.
  • synonyms: floodlight, flood lamp, photoflood
• A large flow.
  • synonyms: overflow, outpouring
• The act of flooding; filling to overflowing.
  • synonyms: flowage
• The occurrence of incoming water (between a low tide and the following high tide. ) "a tide in the affairs of men which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune" -Shakespeare
  • synonyms: flood tide, rising tide

verb

• Fill quickly beyond capacity; as with a liquid.
  • usage: "the basement was inundated after the storm"; "The images flooded his mind"
  • synonyms: deluge, inundate, swamp
• Cover with liquid, usually water.
  • usage: "The swollen river flooded the village"; "The broken vein had flooded blood in her eyes"
• Supply with an excess of.
  • usage: "flood the market with tennis shoes"; "Glut the country with cheap imports from the Orient"
  • synonyms: oversupply, glut
• Become filled to overflowing.
  • usage: "Our basement flooded during the heavy rains"

• (v.i.) A great flow or stream of any fluid substance; as, a flood of light; a flood of lava; hence, a great quantity widely diffused; an overflowing; a superabundance; as, a flood of bank notes; a flood of paper currency.
• (v.t.) To overflow; to inundate; to deluge; as, the swollen river flooded the valley.
• (v.i.) A great flow of water; a body of moving water; the flowing stream, as of a river; especially, a body of water, rising, swelling, and overflowing land not usually thus covered; a deluge; a freshet; an inundation.
• (v.i.) Menstrual disharge; menses.
• (v.i.) The flowing in of the tide; the semidiurnal swell or rise of water in the ocean; -- opposed to ebb; as, young flood; high flood.
• (v.t.) To cause or permit to be inundated; to fill or cover with water or other fluid; as, to flood arable land for irrigation; to fill to excess or to its full capacity; as, to flood a country with a depreciated currency.