Definition of "whelm"
whelm
verb
third-person singular simple present whelms, present participle whelming, simple past and past participle whelmed
(transitive, archaic) To bury, to cover; to engulf, to submerge.
Quotations
Giue fire: ſhe is my prize, or Ocean whelme them all.
c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act II, scene ii], page 46, column 1
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; [...]
, [John] Gay, “Book II. Of Walking the Streets by Day.”, in Trivia: Or, The Art of Walking the Streets of London, London: […] Bernard Lintott, […], page 46
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!
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: […] John Wilson; reprinted Kilmarnock, Scotland: […] James M‘Kie, 1867, page 172
Deep-whelm'd beneath, in vast sepulchral caves, / Oblivion dwells amid unlabell'd graves; / The storied tomb, the laurell'd bust o'erturns, / And shakes their ashes from the mould'ring urns.
1803, Erasmus Darwin, “Canto I. Production of Life.”, 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, […], section II, page 11, lines 113–116
(transitive, obsolete) To throw (something) over a thing so as to cover it.
Quotations
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.
1708, J[ohn] Mortimer, “Of Kites, Hawks, &c.”, in The Whole Art of Husbandry; or, The Way of Managing and Improving of Land. […], 2nd corrected edition, London: Printed by J. H. for H. Mortlock […], and J. Robinson […], book VII, pages 252–253
(transitive, obsolete) To ruin or destroy.
Quotations
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.
1877, Henry M[artyn] Field, “Naples.—Pompeii and Pæstum.”, in From the Lakes of Killarney to the Golden Horn, 4th edition, New York, N.Y.: Scribner, Armstrong, and Company, page 281
(intransitive, archaic) To overcome with emotion; to overwhelm.
Quotations
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.
1839, [John Henry Newman], [Frederick Parry Hodges, compiler], “Hymn 71”, in A Selection of Psalms and Hymns as Chaunted and Sung in the Parish Church of Lyme Regis, Dorset, Lyme [Regis], Dorset: Printed, published, and sold only by Daniel Dunster, […], page 175
noun
plural whelms
(poetic, also figuratively) A surge of water.
Quotations
As our country developed, the clash of new immigrating cultures were all positioning themselves throughout the United States and their political leaders were individually striving for their own egotistical whelm of power [...]
2012, Richard Secklin, “Introduction”, in Marijuana for Parkinson’s Disease: Cannabis Research & the Miracle Plant for Parkinson’s, [United States]: Nettfit Publishing