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  1. 1. to submerge; engulf. 2. to overcome utterly; overwhelm: whelmed by misfortune. If whelm is "to overcome utterly," then why is it you never hear anyone say, "I was whelmed at work today." And wouldn't underwhelm mean something more like expected or normal, rather than the implied less-than-expected? meaning. Share. Improve this question.

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  3. Nov 5, 2014 · In contemporary English, according to The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (5th ed.), the word “whelm” means to submerge or overwhelm. Oxford Dictionaries online offers this example of “whelm” used in the sense of submerge: “a swimmer whelmed in a raging storm.”

  4. The meaning of WHELM is to turn (something, such as a dish or vessel) upside down usually to cover something : cover or engulf completely with usually disastrous effect. How to use whelm in a sentence.

  5. Whelm is a derived term of overwhelm. As verbs the difference between overwhelm and whelm is that overwhelm is to engulf, surge over and submerge while whelm is to cover; to submerge; to engulf; to bury.

  6. Oct 4, 2022 · Once you know that whelm means “engulf,” it’s hard to look past the fact that overwhelm basically means “to double drown” or “to inundate and then inundate again.” Overwhelm is an example of pleonasm — a tautological phrase that includes two words that mean the same thing.

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  7. A person might be overwhelmed by a sensory experience or emotion; a city might be overwhelmed by an influx of tourists. Things can underwhelm, too: a bland meal, a bare wall, a lackluster playlist. But how often does an experience just, well, whelm you?

  8. [ T ] humorous. to have an effect on someone, usually not a very positive or very negative one: His latest album whelms rather than overwhelms. I was only whelmed by the movie, I have to say. Compare. overwhelm. underwhelm. More examples. SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases.

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