Whelm

/ʍɛlm/ · verb

Meaning

(transitive, archaic) To bury, to cover; to engulf, to submerge..

Definitions by Sense

1. (transitive, archaic) To bury, to cover; to engulf, to submerge.
2. (transitive, obsolete) To throw (something) over a thing so as to cover it.
3. (transitive, obsolete) To ruin or destroy.
4. (intransitive, archaic) To overcome with emotion; to overwhelm.
5. (poetic, also figuratively) A surge of water.
6. A wooden drainpipe, a hollowed out tree trunk, turned with the cavity downwards to form an arched watercourse.

Example Sentences

Giue fire: ſhe is my prize, or Ocean whelme them all.

Still let me walk; for oft' the ſudden Gale / Ruffles the Tide, and ſhifts the dang'rous Sail, / Then ſhall the Paſſenger, too late, deplore / The whelming Billow, and the faithleſs Oar; [...]

Such is the fate of ſimple Bard, / On Life's rough ocean luckleſs ſtarr'd! / Unſkilful he to note the card / Of prudent Lore, / Till billows rage, and gales blow hard, / And whelm him o'er!

Deep-whelm'd beneath, in vast sepulchral caves, / Oblivion dwells amid unlabell'd graves; / The storied tomb, the laurell'd bust o'erturns, / And shakes their ashes from the mould'ring urns.

The envious billows sidelong swell to whelm my track; let them; but first I pass.

Gnats and Flies are very troubleſome in Houſes [...] Balls made of Horſe-dung and laid in a Room will do the ſame [attract gnats and flies] if they are new made; by which means you may whelm ſome things over them and keep them there.

Here, where a Cæsar stood two thousand years ago, the traveller from another continent (though not from New Zealand) stands to-day, to muse—at Pæstum, as at Pompeii—on the fate which overtakes all human things, and at last whelms man and his works in one undistinguishable ruin.

In the twentieth night of the nine hundredth moon, as night came up the valley, I performed the mystic rites of each of the gods in the temple as is my wont, lest any of the gods should grow angry in the night and whelm us while we slept.

Synonyms for whelm

Antonyms for whelm

Related Words

Word Forms

• whelms
• whelming
• whelmed

Usage Notes

Choose a synonym only when it preserves the intended meaning, tone, and grammar of the full sentence.

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