flood out
Học thuậtThân thiện
Definition
- Verb:
- To overwhelm someone with an excessive amount of work or tasks: The phrase "flood out" means to burden or overload a person with more responsibilities, duties, or assignments than they can reasonably handle.
Usage
- The verb "flood out" is used to describe the action of overloading someone. It is typically used in professional, academic, or organizational contexts.
- It is a transitive phrasal verb, requiring a direct object (the person being overloaded).
- Common structures: "to flood someone out," "to be flooded out."
Examples
- Verb:
- The new manager tried to flood out the team with urgent reports, leading to burnout.
- I feel completely flooded out with all these deadlines from different clients.
- Be careful not to flood out the new intern with complex tasks on her first day.
Advanced Usage
- Passive Construction: Often used in the passive voice to describe the state of being overwhelmed.
- The small support staff was flooded out with complaints after the system failure.
- Figurative Extension: While primarily about tasks, it can be extended figuratively to other forms of overwhelming input (e.g., information, requests).
- The social media team was flooded out with messages during the campaign.
Variants and Related Words
- Overwhelm (verb): To bury or drown beneath a huge mass; to give too much of something to someone.
- The sheer volume of data can overwhelm the system.
- Overload (verb): To load with too great a burden or cargo.
- Don't overload the circuit with too many appliances.
Synonyms
- Overburden: To load with too great a weight or burden.
- Swamp: To overwhelm or inundate, especially with an excess of something.
- Snow under: To overwhelm, especially with work.
Related Phrasal Verbs
- Heap on: To give someone a lot of something, especially praise, work, or criticism.
- They heaped praise on the award-winning author.
- Pile on: To add more of something, especially something unpleasant, to a situation.
- Just as the project was failing, more problems were piled on.
Related Idioms
- Have too much on one's plate: To have too many things to deal with at one time.
- I can't take on another project; I already have too much on my plate.
- Up to one's ears/eyes in something: To be very busy with or deeply involved in something.
- She's up to her ears in paperwork this week.
Verb
- charge someone with too many tasks