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To overwhelm. [Obs.] Spenser.

To overwhelm with water; to drench; to drown. [Obs.] Shak.

To swallow up or overwhelm in, or as in, a gulf; to cast into a gulf. See Engulf. A river large . . . Passed underneath ingulfed. Milton.

or threads into a fabric, as in knitting or lace making. Hector, when he sees Andromache overwhelmed with terror, sends her for consolation to the loom and the distaff. Rambler.

Hence, any overwhelming, oppressive, or stupefying influence.

ow over; to cover woth, or as with, water or other fluid; to spread over; to inundate; to overwhelm. The northern nations overflowed all Christendom. Spenser.

To lay, or spread, something over or across; hence, to cover; to overwhelm; to press excessively upon. When any country is overlaid by the multitude which live upon it. Sir W. Raleigh. As when a cloud his beams doth overlay. Spenser. Framed of cedar overlaid with gold. Milton. And overlay With this portentous bridge th…

To bear upon with irresistible force; to crush; to overwhelm. Shak.

Hence, a desperate hazard or act; a state of being submerged or overwhelmed with difficulties. [R.] She was brought to that plunge, to conceal her husband's murder or accuse her son. Sir P. Sidney. And with thou not reach out a friendly arm, To raise me from amidst this plunge of sorrows Addison.

To extinguish; to overwhelm; to make an end of; -- said of flame and fire, of things burning, and figuratively of sensations and emotions; as, to quench flame; to quench a candle; to quench thirst, love, hate, etc. Ere our blood shall quench that fire. Shak. The supposition of the lady's death Will quench the wonder of…

To be overwhelmed or depressed; to fall slowly, as so the ground, from weakness or from an overburden; to fail in strength; to decline; to decay; to decrease. I think our country sinks beneath the yoke. Shak. He sunk down in his chariot. 2 Kings ix. 24. Let not the fire sink or slacken. Mortimer.

Fig.: To plunge into difficulties and perils; to overwhelm; to ruin; to wreck. The Whig majority of the house of Lords was swamped by the creation of twelve Tory peers. J. R. Green. Having swamped himself in following the ignis fatuus of a theory. Sir W. Hamilton.

To find fault with; to scold; to overwhelm with wordy abuse; to censure severely or abusively; to rate.

Forces; army. [Poetic] On their embattled ranks the waves return, And overwhelm their war. Milton.

h 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.

Beset or overwhelmed with woe; immersed in grief or sorrow; woeful. Chaucer. So woe-begone was he with pains of love. Fairfax.