whelm
Pronunciation Verb
/mode/1up page 11]:Pronunciation Verb
whelm (whelms, present participle whelming; past and past participle whelmed)
- (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/
- Deep-whelm'd beneath, in vast sepulchral caves, / {{smallcaps