different between deluge vs drench

English

Etymology

From Middle English deluge, from Old French deluge, alteration of earlier deluvie, from Latin d?luvium, from d?lu? (“wash away”). Doublet of diluvium.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?d?l.ju?d?/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?d?l.ju(d)?/, /d??lu(d)?/

Noun

deluge (plural deluges)

1. A great flood or rain.

   The deluge continued for hours, drenching the land and slowing traffic to a halt.

2. An overwhelming amount of something; anything that overwhelms or causes great destruction.

   The rock concert was a deluge of sound.

   • 1848, James Russell Lowell, The Vision of Sir Launfal

     The little bird sits at his door in the sun, / Atilt like a blossom among the leaves, / And lets his illumined being o'errun / With the deluge of summer it receives.

3. (military engineering) A damage control system on navy warships which is activated by excessive temperature within the Vertical Launching System.
   • 2002, NAVEDTRA, Gunner's Mate 14324A

     In the event of a restrained firing or canister overtemperature condition, the deluge system sprays cooling water within the canister until the overtemperature condition no longer exists.

Translations

Verb

deluge (third-person singular simple present deluges, present participle deluging, simple past and past participle deluged)

1. (transitive) To flood with water.
2. (transitive) To overwhelm.

Translations

References

• 1996, T.F. Hoad, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Etymology, Oxford University Press, ?ISBN

See also

• inundate

Middle English

Alternative forms

• diluge

Etymology

From Old French deluge, from Latin d?luvium.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?d??liu?d?(?)/

Noun

deluge (Late Middle English)

1. A deluge; a massive flooding or raining.
2. (rare, figuratively) Any cataclysmic or catastrophic event.

Descendants

• English: deluge

References

• “d?l??e, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-08-12.

Old French

Etymology

From Latin d?luvium.

Noun

deluge m (oblique plural deluges, nominative singular deluges, nominative plural deluge)

1. large flood

Descendants

• French: déluge
• ? Middle English: deluge
  • English: deluge

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English drenchen, from Old English dren?an, from Proto-Germanic *drankijan? (compare Dutch drenken ‘to get a drink’, German tränken ‘to water, give a drink’), causative of *drinkan? (“to drink”). More at drink.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /d??nt?/
• Rhymes: -?nt?

Noun

drench (plural drenches)

1. A draught administered to an animal.
2. (obsolete) A drink; a draught; specifically, a potion of medicine poured or forced down the throat; also, a potion that causes purging.

   • A drench of wine has with success been us'd,
     And through a horn the gen'rous juice infus'd,
     Which, timely taken, op'd his closing jaws,
     But, if too late, the patient's death did cause.

   • 1907, Mark Twain, Christian Science and the Book of Mrs. Eddy

     I took up the 'Christian Scientist' book and read half of it, then took a dipperful of drench and read the other half.

Translations

Verb

drench (third-person singular simple present drenches, present participle drenching, simple past and past participle drenched)

1. To soak, to make very wet.

   • Now dam the ditches and the floods restrain; / Their moisture has already drenched the plain.

2. To cause to drink; especially, to dose (e.g. a horse) with medicine by force.

Related terms

• drenched (adjective)
• drenching (noun)

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English dreng, from Old English dreng (“warrior, soldier”), from Proto-Germanic *drangijaz, cognate to Old Norse drengr.

Noun

drench (plural drenches)

1. (obsolete, Britain) A military vassal, mentioned in the Domesday Book.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Burrill to this entry?)