Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Deluge

Deluge (del"uj) , noun

[French déluge, Latin diluvium, from diluere wash away; di- = dis- + luere, equiv. to lavare to wash. See Lave, and compare Diluvium.]

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 (Gen. vii.).
2.
Figuratively: Anything which overwhelms, or causes great destruction.
The deluge of summer. — Lowell
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. (Aprés moi le déluge.) — Madame de Pompadour

Deluge , transitive verb

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 flood... Shall deluge all. — Pope