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Deluge

1. A washing away; an overflowing of the land by water; an inundation; a flood; specifically, The deluge, the great flood in the days of noah .

2. Anything which overwhelms, or causes great destruction. The deluge of summer. A fiery deluge fed With ever-burning sulphur unconsumed. (Milton) As i grub up some quaint old fragment of a [London] street, or a house, or a shop, or tomb or burial ground, which has still survived in the deluge. (f. Harrison) After me the deluge. (Apres moi le deluge) (Madame de Pompadour)

Origin: f. Deluge, L. Diluvium, fr. Diluere wash away; di- = dis- _ luere, equiv. To lavare to wash. See Lave, and cf. Diluvium.

1. To overflow with water; to inundate; to overwhelm. The deluged earth would useless grow. (Blackmore)

2. To overwhelm, as with a deluge; to cover; to overspread; to overpower; to submerge; to destroy; as, the northern nations deluged the roman empire with their armies; the land is deluged with woe. At length corruption, like a general fl . . . Shall deluge all. (Pope)

Origin: Deluged; Deluging.