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Fig.: Anything which overwhelms, or causes great destruction. "The deluge of summer." Lowell. A fiery deluge fed With ever-burning sulphur unconsumed. Milton. As I grub up some quaint old fragment of a [London] street, or a house, or a shop, or tomb or burial ground, which has still survived in the deluge. F. Harrison.…

The act of overthrowing, pulling down, or destroying a pile or structure; destruction by violence; utter overthrow; -- opposed to construction; as, the demolition of a house, of military works, of a town, or of hopes.

Loss; destruction. [Archaic] Sir T. Browne.

Depopulation; destruction of population. [R.] Chapman.

The act of depopulating, or condition of being depopulated; destruction or explusion of inhabitants. The desolation and depopulation [of St.Quentin] were now complete. Motley.

straight wind without apparent cyclonic tendency, usually accompanied with rain and often destructive, common in the prairie regions of the United States.

A genus of coleopterous insects, the larvæ of which feed animal substances. They are very destructive to dries meats, skins, woolens, and furs. The most common species is D. lardarius, known as the bacon beetle.

The act of desolating or laying waste; destruction of inhabitants; depopulation. Unto the end of the war desolations are determined. Dan. ix. 26.

Destructible. [R.] Plants . . . scarcely destroyable by the weather. Derham.

g devastated; a laying waste. Even now the devastation is begun, And half the business of destruction done. Goldsmith.

by a solemn act; to consecrate; also, to consign over; to doom; to evil; to devote one to destruction; the city was devoted to the flames. No devoted thing that a man shall devote unto the Lord . . . shall be sold or redeemed. Lev. xxvii. 28.

es of terrestrial hermit crabs (Cenobita Diogenes), abundant in the West Indies and often destructive to crops. -- Diogenes' tub, the tub which the philosopher Diogenes is said to have carried about with him as his house, in which he lived.

Destruction; dispersion. Bp. Horsley.

The act of disorganizing; destruction of system.

Destruction of anything by the separation of its parts; ruin. To make a present dissolution of the world. Hooker.

The substance extracted by distilling. Shak. Destructive distillation (Chem.), the distillation, especially of complex solid substances, so that the ultimate constituents are separated or evolved in new compounds, -- usually requiring a high degree of heat; as, the destructive distillation of soft coal or of wood. --…

Dolphin fly (Zoöl.), the black, bean, or collier, Aphis (Aphis fable), destructive to beans. -- Dolphin striker (Naut.), a short vertical spar under the bowsprit.

Full of condemnation or destructive power. [R.] "That doomful deluge." Drayton.

A sudden descent from rank or state, reputation or happiness; destruction; ruin. Dire were the consequences which would follow the downfall of so important a place. Motley.

ies, which kills oysters and other bivalves by drilling holes through the shell. The most destructive kind is Urosalpinx cinerea. Bow drill, Breast drill. See under Bow, Breast. -- Cotter drill, or Traverse drill, a machine tool for drilling slots. -- Diamond drill. See under Diamond. -- Drill jig. See under Jig. -…