flood gate
Dam's release mechanism
A flood gate is a gate in a waterway that controls water flow, opened to release excess water or closed to prevent flooding.
The plural floodgates appears in the common figurative expression open the floodgates, meaning to remove barriers and allow something to rush through unchecked: The ruling opened the floodgates to lawsuits.
- open the floodgatesRemove barriers to overwhelming flow
- overflowExceed capacity and spill
- sluiceGated water conduit
- surgeSudden powerful increase
- spillwayDam's water release structure
dam burst · water control · inundation · deluge · tidal wave · lock · release valve · outpouring · shut-off · hold back · threshold · tipping point · let loose · reservoir · hydraulic · high water · hatch · pent-up
- gatesgatepost, tollgate, floodgate, portcullis, lychgate
- flood controllevee, levees, dike, dikes, dykes
- water barriersseawall, breakwater, levee, dike, floodwall
- dam equipmentheadgate, floodgate, penstock, spillway, sluice
- damsdam wall, barrage, concrete dams, spillway, cofferdam
- infrastructurehighways, road construction, railway expansion, power grid, roads
metaphorical release/restraint
flood gatebottleneck
Constriction limiting throughput
restraint · barrier · containment · cork · stopper
flood, gate, floods, flooded, flooding, gates, gated, gating, gatekeeper