English Dictionary

whelm

/ʍɛlm/

verb

(transitive, archaic) To bury, to cover; to engulf, to submerge. / (transitive, obsolete) To throw (something) over a thing so as to cover it. / (transitive, obsolete) To ruin or destroy.

The waves whelm the boat, causing it to capsize.

意味（1）

(transitive, archaic) To bury, to cover; to engulf, to submerge.

Giue fire: ſhe is my prize, or Ocean whelme them all.

意味（2）

(transitive, obsolete) To throw (something) over a thing so as to cover it.

Gnats and Flies are very troubleſome in Houſes … Balls made of Horſe-dung and laid in a Room will do the ſame [attract gnats and flies] if they are new made; by which means you may whelm ſome things over them and keep them there.

意味（3）

(transitive, obsolete) To ruin or destroy.

Here, where a Cæsar stood two thousand years ago, the traveller from another continent (though not from New Zealand) stands to-day, to muse—at Pæstum, as at Pompeii—on the fate which overtakes all human things, and at last whelms man and his works in one undistinguishable ruin.

意味（4）

(intransitive, archaic) To overcome with emotion; to overwhelm.

Hear Thou our plaint, when light is gone / And lawlessness and strife prevail. / Hear, lest the whelming weight of crime / Wreck us with life in view; / Lest thoughts and schemes of sense and time / Earn us a sinner's due.