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! Shak. The whelming billow and the faithless oar. Gay.
Fig.: To cover completely, as if with water; to immerse; to overcome; as, to whelm one in sorrows. "The whelming weight of crime." J. H. Newman.
To throw (something) over a thing so as to cover it. [Obs.] Mortimer.
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