deluge

après moi, le déluge

Used to express selfish disregard for problems that may occur in the future, especially after one's death or reign of control. This French phrase literally means, "After me, the flood." Attributed to both King Louis XV and his mistress Madame de Pompadour, the phrase likely refers to (and foreshadows) the difficulties that would befall France after years of the aristocracy's lavish living. A: "Do you really have no regard for the trouble you're causing?" B: "You're overreacting. Besides, you and I will be long gone before anything bad might come of this. Après moi, le déluge!"
See also: après, deluge, le

après nous, le déluge

Used to express selfish disregard for problems that may occur in the future, especially after one's death or reign of control. This French phrase literally means, "After us, the flood." Attributed to both King Louis XV and his mistress Madame de Pompadour, the phrase likely refers to (and foreshadows) the difficulties that would befall France after years of the aristocracy's lavish living. A: "Do you really have no regard for the trouble you're causing?" B: "You're overreacting. Besides, you and I will be long gone before anything bad might come of this. Après nous, le déluge!"
See also: après, deluge, le

deluge (someone or something) with (something)

1. Literally, to flood with water or another liquid or substance. The heavy rains brought by the hurricane deluged our basement with water. The contained deluged me with glitter when I opened it upside down.
2. By extension, to overwhelm or overpower someone or something with something. Many of my students are now applying to college and have deluged me with requests for recommendations.
See also: deluge
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

deluge someone or something with something

 
1. Lit. to flood someone or something with water or something similar. The swollen river broke the dam and deluged the town with billions of gallons of water.
2. Fig. to overwhelm someone or something with something; to "flood" someone or something with something. The reporters deluged us with questions.
See also: deluge
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.

après moi le déluge

After I’m dead nothing will matter. This cliché, literally meaning “after me, the flood,” was allegedly said in slightly different form in 1757 by Madame de Pompadour to Louis XV after Frederick the Great defeated the French and Austrians at Rossbach. (She put it après nous le déluge, “after us the flood.”) The flood alludes to the biblical flood in which all but those on Noah’s ark perished. The phrase is still always stated in French.
See also: après, deluge, le, moi
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer

après moi le deluge

A disaster will follow. The French phrase, translated as “After me the deluge,” has been attributed to King Louis XVI or to his mistress, Madame de Pompadour. He or she was referring to the centuries of excessive living enjoyed by the aristocracy and paid for by the rest of France and what would happen as a result when His Majesty (or Madame) went to their heavenly rest. Whether the king or his main squeeze was predicting a cataclysm or simply indicating that he or she didn't care what came after them isn't clear. Nevertheless, whoever spoke the words was a prophet in his or her time: fourteen years after Louis's death came the revolution that swept away the old order, including Louis's son. No one could have been ideologically further from the Bourbon monarchy than Karl Marx, who repeated the phrase in his Das Kapital: “Après moi le déluge! is the watchword of every capitalist and of every capitalist nation. Hence capital is reckless of the health or length of life of the labourer, unless under compulsion from society.” The phrase is the very appropriate motto of Britain's Royal Air Force 617 Squadron, nicknamed “the Dam Busters” for its sorties against German dams during World War II.
See also: après, deluge, le, moi
Endangered Phrases by Steven D. Price
See also:
  • après
  • après moi le déluge
  • après moi, le déluge
  • après nous, le déluge
  • le
  • moi
  • (someone or something) be damned
  • damned
  • in (one's) bad graces
  • in someone's bad graces
References in periodicals archive
Sacred Cesium Ground and Isa's Deluge is a potent representation of stubborn locals and places that refuse to be forgotten, clinging to integrity and humanity in the face of disaster and apathy.
Sacred Cesium Ground and Isa's Deluge; Two Novellas of Japan's 3/11 Disaster
Deluge Network will enable Bitcoin to act as if it is moving on the Ethereum blockchain by fully backing the Deluge Bitcoin Token (DBTC) with an equal amount of Bitcoin (BTC).
Deluge Network offers viable alternative to high cost and slow speeds of exchanges
The Berghaus Deluge Light is PS85 from www.berghaus.com and specialist retailers.
GEAR OF THE WEEK
[beaucoup moins que]Apres moi, le deluge![beaucoup plus grand que], qu'on pouvait chantonner sur les creneaux des remparts, ne sert plus a rien, car l'arche de Noe prend l'eau de toutes parts.
Apres moi, le deluge!
The Pre-trimmed DV-5 Deluge Valve and Resilient Seated Gate Valves are our next steps in that process."
Latest Tyco valves protect against fire
Thus, hydrophilic coatings could offer a potential solution for nonuniform wetting of HX fins, but to the best of authors' knowledge, no study on deluge evaporative cooling performance of hydrophilic coated wavy-fins was found in the published literature.
Deluge evaporative cooling performance of wavy fin and tube-inclined heat exchangers
While there has been a veritable deluge of fitness bands in recent times, the Vivofit fitness tracker from navigation-guru Garmin successfully manages to steal a few lux of spotlight from the Fitbits and Fuelbands.
Garmin Vivofit
DELUGE: A car drives through floodwater in Coates, Gloucestershire, as motorists were urged to take greater care
Downpours cause flood chaos
THOUSANDS of Filipinos shovelled muck and debris from flood-ravaged homes, shops and roads under a shining sun yesterday after nearly two weeks of non-stop rain shut down the capital and forced hundreds of thousands to flee from the deluge.
Clearup after deadly Philippine floods
The lunchtime deluge transformed roads into rivers across Tyneside.
Floods return as rain swamps region; Roads and homes hit by storms
They affirmed that water had been released from the reservoir, explaining that it was carried out according to a routine schedule and was not the main cause of the deluge.
Sudden Floods In Russia Raise Suspicions: Are Reservoir Operators To Blame?
Summary: Householders across the UK have been warned to prepare for flash flooding as many continue to clean up after last week's deluge.
More flooding on the way, say forecasters
The Environment Agency is monitoring water levels in the Midlands amid flood fears after the deluge in recent weeks.
Water levels monitored as flood fears rise
After The Deluge takes place in the Royal Standard's Project Space from August 19-21.
Deluge of art at the Standard
Scientific data that the Black Sea basin experienced a flooding that transformed it, and linked to the Mediterranean has given rise to interpretations that the true story of this natural calamity might have something to do with the story of the Biblical Deluge.
Black Sea Used to Be Freshwater Lake, Experienced Deluge - Scientists