▪ I. deluge, n.
(ˈdɛljuːdʒ)
Also 4–5 (7) diluge, 6 diludge, (7 dyluge).
[a. F. déluge (12th c. in Hatzf.), early ad. L. dīluvium (see diluvium), modified after the example of words of popular formation (Hatzf.). OF. forms nearer to the L. were deluve, delouve, diluve: cf. Pr. diluvi, Sp. and It. diluvio. An earlier ME. form was diluvy. In the 15th c. it rimed with huge.]
1. A great flood or overflowing of water, a destructive inundation. (Often used hyperbolically, e.g. of a heavy fall of rain.)
| c 1374 Chaucer Boeth. ii. vi. 51 Ne no deluge ne doþ so cruel harmes. c 1393 ― Scogan 14 Thow cawsest this diluge [v.r. deluuye] of pestilence. 1601 Holland Pliny I. 39 There happen, together with earthquakes, deluges also, and inundations of the sea. 1634 Sir T. Herbert Trav. 54 A violent storme of raine..caused such a sudden Deluge..that a Carravan of two thousand camels perisht. 1720 Gay Poems (1745) I. 139 When the bursting clouds a deluge pour. 1748 F. Smith Voy. Disc. N.-W. Pass. I. 121 A Harbour..where they might go free from the Ice and the Spring Deluge, which sometimes happens..by the Suddenness of the Thaw. 1855 Motley Dutch Rep. (1861) II. 270 The memorable deluge of the thirteenth century out of which the Zuyder Zee was born. 1878 Huxley Physiogr. 131 Where the rain comes down as a deluge. |
2. spec. The great Flood in the time of Noah (also called the general deluge or universal deluge).
| c 1386 Chaucer Pars. T. ¶765 God dreynte al the world at the diluge [v.r. diluve]. 1483 Caxton G. de la Tour D viij, The deluge or gaderyng of waters in the dayes of Noe. 1559 W. Cuningham Cosmogr. Glasse 194 Jaffa, a port whiche was builded before the diludge. 1635 N. Carpenter Geog. Del. ii. i. 8 In the generall deluge all mankinde suffered for their sinnes a plague of waters. 1725 De Foe Voy. round World (1840) 289 From the days of the general deluge. 1880 Ouida Moths I. 46 It must have been worn at the deluge. |
3. fig. and transf.
| c 1430 Lydg. Min. Poems 251 (Mätz.) That worldly wawes with there mortal deluge Ne drowne me nat. 1555 Eden Decades Pref. to Rdr. (Arb.) 51 Drowned in the deluge of erroure. 1632 Lithgow Trav. x. 446 The general deluge of the Gothes, Hunnes and Vandales. 1667 Milton P.L. i. 68 A fiery Deluge, fed With ever-burning Sulphur unconsum'd. 1760–72 tr. Juan & Ulloa's Voy. (ed. 3) I. 252 The whole city and..country were often, as it were, buried under a deluge of ashes. 1872 Black Adv. Phaeton xxvi. 359 When the waters of this deluge of rhetoric had abated. |
† 4. The inundation (of). Also fig. Obs.
| 1601 Holland Pliny I. 65 In the generall deluge of the countrey by raine they only remained aliue. 1631 Weever Anc. Fun. Mon. 768 Demolished long before the violent deluge of such buildings, which happened in the raigne of King Henry the eight. |
▪ II. deluge, v.
(ˈdɛljuːdʒ)
[f. the n.: cf. to flood.]
1. trans. To flow or pour over (a surface) in a deluge; to flood, inundate; also absol. (Often used hyperbolically.)
| 1649 Montrose Epit. Chas. I in Bp. Guthrie's Mem. (1702) 255, I 'de weep the World in such a Strain, As it should deluge once again. 1715–20 Pope Iliad xxi. 383 At every step, before Achilles stood The crimson surge, and delug'd him with blood. 1727 De Foe Syst. Magic i. iv. (1840) 104 Sufficient to deluge the World, and drown Mankind. 1787 Generous Attachment III. 82 The heavens now deluged in good earnest. 1790 F. Burney Diary Aug., He left me neither more nor less than deluged in tears. 1869 Phillips Vesuv. iii. 48 Hot water from the mountain deluged the neighbourhood. |
2. fig. and transf.
| 1654 Z. Coke Logick (1657) A vij b, Truths that before deluged you, will take you now but up to the Ancles. 1732 Pope Ep. Bathurst 137 At length Corruption, like a gen'ral flood..Shall deluge all. 1833 H. Martineau Loom & Lugger i. i. 2 The market was deluged with smuggled silks. 1850 W. Irving Goldsmith xxi. 227 The kingdom was deluged with pamphlets. |
Hence ˈdeluged ppl. a.; ˈdeluger, one who deluges (nonce-wd.); ˈdeluging vbl. n. and ppl. a.
| 1712 Blackmore (J.), The delug'd earth. 1824 Miss Mitford Village Ser. i. (1863) 177 The sky promised a series of deluging showers. 1834 Georgian Era IV. 463/2 He vented his reproaches upon the deluger. 1887 Bowen Virg. æneid iii. 625 The deluged threshold in gore Ran. 1890 W. C. Russell Ocean Trag. II. xxi. 183 These darkening, glimmering, green delugings. |