Del″uge (dĕl″ū̍j), n. [F. déluge, L. diluvium, fr. diluere wash away; di- = dis- + luere, equiv. to lavare to wash. See Lave, and cf. 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. Fig.: 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 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.