Whelms

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. The act of overpowering can describe intensely impacting someone or flooding an area with a strong force along with immersing one’s feelings or sensations in a deep manner
2. To engulf or submerge something completely, often resulting in a sense of overwhelming emotion or an overpowering force present in a situation
3. The process of inundating with a strong feeling or physical force, which can lead to a deep sense of being overtaken or immersed

Etymology: The verb "whelm" was the older root of "overwhelm," and it began life as a word about turning things over. Its Middle English form "whelmen" meant to turn over, capsize, or invert, and it grew from an earlier Old English stem tied to "hwealf," an arch or vaulted ceiling. The idea was of something curved and bent over, like an upturned bowl or a roof arching above. The verb's clearer modern shape comes from the idea of covering. Something that is turned over and laid on top of another thing covers it completely, and that sense of engulfing carried forward into the sense of overpowering a person or flooding a place. Related forms in other languages keep the arch idea alive, including German "wölben," meaning to arch or curve, and Dutch "welven," meaning the same. The word is one of a family that includes "overwhelm" and "underwhelm." It may have been back-formed from those, as if a base verb described a middling intensity. Here, "whelm" in its current sense mostly survives within the longer compound.

Synonyms: overwhelms, engulfs, submerges, drowns

Antonyms: rescues, saves, floats, liberates