an inundation or overflowing of the earth, either wholly or in part, by water.

We have several deluges recorded in history, as that of Oggyes, which overflowed almost all Attica; and that of Deucalion, which drowned all Thessaly in Greece: but the most memorable was that called the universal deluge, or Noah's flood, which overflowed and destroyed the whole earth, and out of which only Noah, and those with him in the ark, escaped. See ARK.

Many attempts have been made to account for the deluge by means of natural causes: but these attempts have only tended to discredit philosophy, and to render their authors ridiculous.