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Cloudburst vs Deluge - What's the difference?

cloudburst | deluge | Related terms |

As nouns the difference between cloudburst and deluge

is that cloudburst is a sudden heavy rainstorm while deluge is a great flood or rain.

As a verb deluge is

to flood with water.

As a proper noun Deluge is

the Biblical flood during the time of Noah.

cloudburst

Alternative forms

* cloud-burst

Noun

(en noun)
  • A sudden heavy rainstorm.
  • * 1899 , , "A Cup of Cold Water" in The Greater Inclination :
  • [B]ut the sound . . . expressed an utter abandonment to grief; not the cloud-burst of some passing emotion, but the slow down-pour of a whole heaven of sorrow.
  • * 1908 , , The Riverman , ch. 38:
  • A cloudburst in the China Creek district followed by continued heavy rains was responsible for the increased water.
  • * 1936 Aug. 17, " Miscellany," Time (retrieved 20 May 2014):
  • In Uniontown, Pa., John Walchesky & family rushed from their house when lightning set it afire, rushed in again when a cloudburst put out the blaze.
  • * 2007 Feb. 25, , " Devotion'', chapter 1" (book excerpt), ''New York Times (retrieved 20 May 2014):
  • [H]e walked across the lawn, wet from a fleeting late-afternoon cloudburst , the first rain in a month.

    Synonyms

    * cloudbust

    deluge

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A great flood or rain.
  • The deluge continued for hours, drenching the land and slowing traffic to a halt.
  • An overwhelming amount of something; anything that overwhelms or causes great destruction.
  • The rock concert was a deluge of sound.
  • * Milton
  • A fiery deluge fed / With ever-burning sulphur unconsumed.
  • * Lowell
  • 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.
  • (Military engineering) A damage control system on navy warships which is activated by excessive temperature within the Vertical Launching System.
  • * NAVEDTRA 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.

    Verb

  • To flood with water.
  • To overwhelm.
  • After the announcement, they were deluged with requests for more information.

    References

    * 1996, T.F. Hoad, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Etymology , Oxford University Press, ISBN 0192830988

    See also

    * inundate ----