whelm
[verb]
Synonyms: deluge, drown, engulf, flood, inundate, overflow, overwhelm, submerge, swamp, knock over, overcome, overpower, prostrate

[TahlilGaran] English Synonym Dictionary ▲

whelm verb & noun. [wɛlm] ME.
[Repr. unrecorded Old English verb parallel to WHELVE. Cf. WHEMMEL.]
A. verb.
1. verb intrans. Overturn, capsize. ME-E16.

2. verb trans. Turn (a hollow vessel) upside down; esp. place (a hollow vessel) upside down over something as a cover. Now dial. ME.
b. Cover (a thing) with an upside-down vessel. LME-M17.
c. Throw or heap (a thing) over something else, esp. so as to cover or crush it. Foll. by over, upon. E17.
d. verb trans. & intrans. Turn over (soil). M17-L18.

3. verb intrans. Pass over and cover (a thing) literary. Long rare. LME.

4. verb trans. Cover with a great mass of water, earth, etc.; submerge, drown, bury; transf. & fig. engulf or destroy like a flood, avalanche, etc.; overpower emotionally. M16.
■ Tennyson Some were whelmed with missiles of the wall.
■ A. Jessopp Flocks, and herds, and corn and hay being whelmed in the deluge.
b. noun.
1. A wooden drainpipe, originally made from a hollowed tree-trunk. Long obsolete exc. dial. L16.

2. A surge (of activity, water, etc.). Chiefly poet. E19.

[TahlilGaran] English Dictionary ▲