noun
1.
a. : the rising tide — opposed to ebb tide
b. : a tide at its greatest height — compare spring tide
2. : something felt to resemble a rising tide: as
a. : a moving mass of people
a flood tide of laughing children burst from the school
b. : something overwhelming or overspreading
the flood tide of recurrent barbarism
c. : a high point : peak , climax
the army … which at its flood tide numbered 89 combat divisions — Life
d. : a great and usually increasing quantity or number
a flood tide of shoddy novels
an effort to stem the flood tide of wheat that threatens to overrun the already jammed federal storehouses — New York Times