Emily Dickinson Lexicon

DEL'UGE, n. [Fr. deluge; Arm. diluich; Sp. diluvio; It. id.; L. diluvies, diluvium, from diluo, diluvio; di and luo, lavo, to wash. If deluge and diluvium are the same word, of which there can be little doubt, the fact proves that luo, lavo, is contracted or changed from lugo, and that the primitive word was lugo; and it is certain that the radix of fluo is flugo. See Flow.]

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. – Gen. vi.
2. A sweeping or overwhelming calamity.