Whelm

Quick meaning: Whelm is a verb meaning (transitive, archaic) To bury, to cover; to engulf, to submerge.

Meaning

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

More Meanings

1. (transitive, obsolete) To throw (something) over a thing so as to cover it.
2. (transitive, obsolete) To ruin or destroy.
3. (intransitive, archaic) To overcome with emotion; to overwhelm.
4. (poetic, also figuratively) A surge of water.
5. 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.

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

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.

Word Forms

• whelms
• whelming
• whelmed

Synonyms for whelm

Depending on context, synonyms include overwhelm, whemmel, overcome, overpower, overtake.

Antonyms for whelm

Common opposites include unwhelm.

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include overwhelm, overpower, overcome, overtake, whemmel, engulf.

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