whelm
Pronunciation
  • (RP, GA) enPR whĕlm, IPA: /ʍɛlm/, /wɛlm/
Verb

whelm (whelms, present participle whelming; past and past participle whelmed)

  1. (transitive) To bury, to cover#Verb|cover; to engulf, to submerge.
    Synonyms: overwhelm, whemmel
    Antonyms: unwhelm
    • c. 1597, William Shakespeare, “The Merry VViues of VVindsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act II, scene ii], page 46 ↗, column 1:
      Giue fire: ſhe is my prize, or Ocean whelme them all.
    • [1716], [John] Gay, “Book II. Of Walking the Streets by Day.”, in Trivia: Or, The Art of Walking the Streets of London, London: Printed for Bernard Lintott, […], OCLC 13598122 ↗, page 46 ↗:
      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; [...]
    • 1786, Robert Burns, “To a Mountain-daisy, On Turning One Down, with the Plough, in April—1786”, in Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, volume I, Kilmarnock, Scotland: Printed by John Wilson, OCLC 1086871905 ↗; reprinted Kilmarnock, Scotland: Printed […] by James M‘Kie, 1867, OCLC 892088677 ↗, page 172 ↗:
      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!
    • 1803, Erasmus Darwin, “Canto I
      .”, in The Temple of Nature; or, The Origin of Society: A Poem, with Philosophical Notes, London: Printed for J[oseph] Johnson, […], by T[homas] Bensley, […], OCLC 1015453761 ↗, section II, lines 113–116, [https://archive.org/details/templeofnatureor00darw/page/
/mode/1up page 11]:
Deep-whelm'd beneath, in vast sepulchral caves, / {{smallcaps
  • (transitive, obsolete) To throw#Verb|throw (something) over a thing so as to cover it.
    Synonyms: whemmel
  • (transitive, obsolete) To ruin#Verb|ruin or destroy.
  • (intransitive) To overcome with emotion; to overwhelm.
  • Translations Translations Noun

    whelm (plural whelms)

    1. (poetic, also, figuratively) A surge#Noun|surge of water#Noun|water.
      the whelm of the tide



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