WHELM • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Whelm

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verb

Whelm v. t. (past & past part. whelmed; pres. part. whelming)

To cover with water or other fluid; to cover by immersion in something that envelops on all sides; to overwhelm; to ingulf. "She is my prize, or ocean whelm them all!" "The whelming billow and the faithless oar."

Fig.: To cover completely, as if with water; to immerse; to overcome; as, to whelm one in sorrows. "The whelming weight of crime."

To throw (something) over a thing so as to cover it. (Obs.)

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Etymology of 'Whelm'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Whelm" Quotes from Famous Books

... blackens the hollows and heights of the sea, And galley by galley, divided and desolate, founders; and none takes heed, Nor foe nor friend, if they perish; forlorn, cast off in their uttermost need, They sink in the whelm of the waters, as pebbles by children from shoreward hurled, In the North Sea's waters that end not, nor know they a bourn but the bourn of the world. Past many a secure unavailable harbour, and many a loud stream's ...

— Poems and Ballads (Third Series) - Taken from The Collected Poetical Works of Algernon Charles - Swinburne—Vol. III • Algernon Charles Swinburne

... sad is the night-time, The night-time of sorrow, When through the deep gloom, we catch but the boom Of the waves that may whelm us to-morrow." ...

— Mary Barton • Elizabeth Gaskell

... and tone on tone, And echoes answering everywhere— Like bugles from the mountains blown— Each sought to whelm the burdened air, And make ...

— The Mistress of the Manse • J. G. Holland

Words linked to "Whelm" : knock out, devastate, stagger, fire, lock, get hold of, arouse, overcome, kindle, kill, seize, provoke, raise, overwhelm, clutch, overpower, evoke