flooding

Etymology

verb

1. present participle and gerund of flood

noun

1. An act of flooding; a flood or gush.
   And by the same token it was plain that there had also been a hundred and seventy-five floodings of the earth and depositings of limestone strata! 1875, Mark Twain, Some Learned Fables for Good Old Boys and Girls
   … at Cowley Bridge Junction, east of Exeter, both lines were impassable from about 1.30 p.m.—the first flooding of the junction for 36 years—and by the evening the water had risen two-thirds of the way up the platforms at St. Davids as Exeter faced its worst flooding for 60 years. 1960 December, “Talking of Trains: The railway and the Devon floods”, in Trains Illustrated, page 709
2. (psychology, figurative) Emotional overwhelm sometimes leading to a primal state of rage or panic.
3. (psychology) A form of therapy that treats a phobia by suddenly exposing the patient to the object of the phobia, instead of approaching it gradually.