deluge Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun an overwhelming number or amount
    flood; torrent; inundation.
    • a flood of requests
    • a torrent of abuse
  2. noun a heavy rain
    downpour; cloudburst; soaker; pelter; waterspout; torrent.
  3. noun the rising of a body of water and its overflowing onto normally dry land
    flood; alluvion; inundation.
    • plains fertilized by annual inundations
  4. verb fill quickly beyond capacity; as with a liquid
    flood; inundate; swamp.
    • the basement was inundated after the storm
    • The images flooded his mind
  5. verb charge someone with too many tasks
    overwhelm; flood out.
  6. verb fill or cover completely, usually with water
    inundate; submerge.

WordNet

Del"uge noun
Etymology
F. déluge, L. diluvium, fr. diluere wash away; di- = dis- + luere, equiv. to lavare to wash. See Lave, and cf. Diluvium.
Definitions
  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 [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.
Del"uge transitive verb
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Deluged ; present participle & verbal noun Deluging
Definitions
  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.

Webster 1913