I know the meaning of “flooded” as in “covered with water”, but what is the meaning here?
Over 200 students from all over the state flooded the helpline calls on the first day of its launch.
How was “flooded” used here?
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The sentence is more likely to be:
There were suddenly a large number of incoming calls -- it was as if there was a flood of calls. The word 'flood' is used here in a figurative sense: a sudden, large in-rush resembling a flood. We say something is 'flooded with' -- so with is required. Also, the first day is 'the day of launch', so the word first is incorrect -- there can be only one day of launch. |
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The line got covered with students. over 200 students from all over the state overwhelmed the helpline with calls on the first day of its launch. It means use far beyond normal capacity. Too many askers, too few people to answer the calls on the helpline. This is often used in context of "the crowd flooded in", or "we flooded the senator's office with letters" - the flood doesn't have to consist of water. |
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Here, "flooded" refers to the fact that the telephone lines were swarmed by too many people, i.e., over 200 (in your particular case). Flooded is used to emphasize "too many in number". So it can also be interpreted as:
It is "too many" because such a large number (200 here) was not expected. Another example:
This is similar to:
Also same as:
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As SF stated it means a large amount of people, but it is used to mean the movement of the people. A flood refers to movement, so a sudden surge of people into a room would be considered a "flood" of people. |
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