whelm

Plural: whelms

Verb

Verb Forms: whelmed, whelming, whelms

To cover or engulf completely, as if by a great wave.
overcome, as with emotions or perceptual stimuli
To bury, to cover; to engulf, to submerge.
To throw (something) over a thing so as to cover it.
To ruin or destroy.
To overcome with emotion; to overwhelm.

Noun

A surge of water.
A wooden drainpipe, a hollowed out tree trunk, turned with the cavity downwards to form an arched watercourse.

Examples

He was whelmed by the sheer number of possible plays on the Words With Friends board.
the whelm of the tide

Origin / Etymology

From Middle English whelmen (“to turn over, capsize; to invert, turn upside down”), perhaps from Old English *hwealmnian, a variant of *hwealfnian, from hwealf (“arched, concave, vaulted; an arched or vaulted ceiling”), from Proto-West Germanic *hwalb, from Proto-Germanic *hwalbą (“arch, vault”), from Proto-Indo-European *kʷelp- (“to curve”). The English word is cognate with German Walm (“a vaulted roof”), Icelandic hvolf (“vaulted ceiling”), Dutch welven (“to arch”), German wölben (“to bend, curve; to arch”), Icelandic hvelfa (“to overturn”), Old Saxon bihwelvian (“to cover; to hide”), Ancient Greek κόλπος (kólpos, “bosom, hollow, gulf”).
The noun is derived from the verb.

Synonyms

overcome, overpower, overtake, overwhelm, sweep over, whemmel

Antonyms

unwhelm

Scrabble Score: 13

whelm: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Word
whelm: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
whelm: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary

Words With Friends Score: 14

whelm: valid Words With Friends Word