DELUGE, noun [Latin To wash.]

1. Any overflowing of water; an inundation; a flood; a swell of water over the natural banks of a river or shore of the ocean, spreading over the adjacent land. But appropriately, the great flood or overflowing of the earth by water, in the days of Noah; according to the common chronology, Anno Mundi, 1656. Genesis 6:1.

2. A sweeping or overwhelming calamity.

DELUGE, verb transitive

1. To overflow with water; to inundate; to drown. The waters deluged the earth and destroyed the old world.

2. To overwhelm; to cover with any flowing or moving, spreading body. The Northern nations deluged the Roman empire with their armies.

3. To overwhelm; to cause to sink under the weight of a general or spreading calamity; as, the land is deluged with corruption.