Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To cover with water; submerge.
- v. To overwhelm.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To throw over so as to cover.
- To engulf; submerge; cover by immersion in something that envelops on all sides; overwhelm.
- Hence, to crush, ruin, or destroy by some sudden overpowering disaster.
- To pass or roll over so as to cover or submerge.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To cover with water or other fluid; to cover by immersion in something that envelops on all sides; to overwhelm; to ingulf.
- v. Fig.: To cover completely, as if with water; to immerse; to overcome.
- v. To throw (something) over a thing so as to cover it.
WordNet 3.0
- v. overcome, as with emotions or perceptual stimuli
Etymologies
- Middle English whelmen, to overturn, probably alteration (influenced by helmen, to cover) of whelven, from Old English -hwelfan (as in āhwelfan, to cover over).
Examples
“But the didlates of calm reafon have been, ovei'whelm'ed by that torrent of ambition, which has boi; ne down the facred barriers of the conflitution, by taking, ad - vantage of the calamity of our gracidus fove -”
““Hence am I borne against the rocks; hence 'whelm'd”
The Metamorphoses of Publius Ovidus Naso in English blank verse Vols. I & II
“Good to have a battle on our hands - and, as Shakespeare said - the truth will out tho all the world or 'whelm it.”
Clinton: Vetting process for administration jobs 'a nightmare'
“I find that I even enjoy trips for work, even though key note speakers at regional or national conferences tend to under-whelm.”
“Somewhere a volcano may whelm a city, earth shake its skin like an old horse,”
“A dozen years into a remarkable career, Carroll is wallowing -- apparently oblivious -- in a creative crisis that threatens to whelm it. posted by Gregory Feeley at 12:17 PM”
“At some point the failure to deliver analogous with profits should over whelm the bland answers on TV about investment, agenda's and supposed reform given by New Labour zombies.”
“Give fire: she is my prize, or ocean whelm them all!”
“Unlikely as it seems, a sudden lust might overwhelm you—over-whelm us for that matter.”
“Should hide our walls, or whelm beneath the ground.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘whelm’.
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Archaic
abide, abjure, abroad, adamant, afield, aforetime, aghast, anon, apace, argent, assuage, aught and 327 more...
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Deprefixed words
A list of words you more frequently hear used with prefixes than without.
clement, witting, ravel, whelm, fettered, licit, couth, bridled, wieldy, kempt, ingenuous, iterate and 110 more...
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Sima Yi's list
A list of words I find unusual and interesting.
dysphemism, hapax legomenon, rill, repristinate, exuviate, phillipic, fillip, cyanobacteria, prokaryotic, onomasticon, bibliotics, diplomatics and 45 more...
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Chit Chat
Conversations that are shorter than those featured in my conversations list.
props, frass, narwhal, preggers, mu, hype, heterotopia, sans serif, cow orker, snicker-snack, modality road, boolean poetry and 77 more...
bilby
Oh, never this whelming east wind swells
But it seems like the sea's return
To the ancient lands where it left the shells
Before the age of the fern;
And it seems like the time when after doubt
Our love came back amain.
Oh, come forth into the storm and rout
And be my love in the rain.
- Robert Frost, 'A Line-Storm Song'. Aug 8, 2009
bilby I am floorwhelmed by your suggestion. Feb 3, 2009
sratsrat I have always used whelm. If one needs to say more she can say floored. Feb 3, 2009
jennarenn Thanks for the reference! I absolutely couldn't remember where it was from. Ok, 1834 is not archaic, but so many phrases are written into church songs, prayers, etc. and then petrified. For example, modern writers don't use 'thee' or 'thou', but we read them in church writings all the time (well, some churches). I can't imagine many people today using 'whelm', so I think of it as fossilized.
That being said, it would be cool to bring it back. May 24, 2007
uselessness That's from the hymn "On Christ the Solid Rock I Stand." Archaic? May 24, 2007
jennarenn I think I've heard of it used to describe "a whelming flood." Probably a frozen fragment of language rather than an actual, modern word. May 24, 2007
trivet Chastity: I know you can be underwhelmed, and you can be overwhelmed, but can you ever just be, like, whelmed?
Bianca: I think you can in Europe.
-10 Things I Hate About You May 24, 2007
reesetee Well, you could adequatewhelm, I suppose, but that's kind of...uh...what's the word I'm looking for? Underwhelming. Yes. That's it. May 24, 2007
uselessness What if I want to increase my personal whelm factor without going over? Can I superwhelm? I'd hate to exceed my limits of whelmnation but wouldn't want to settle for mediocre either. May 24, 2007
reesetee Huh. Interesting. So saying "overwhelm" may be to commit a word-crime similar to that of "irregardless"? Frightening. May 23, 2007
rawles Apparently a person can, in fact, be "whelmed" without qualifier. Except it means the same thing as being overwhelmed. Hmm. Who knew? May 23, 2007