Overwhelm

//ˌəʊ.vəˈwɛlm// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The state or condition of being overwhelmed. countable, uncountable

    "If you beat your opponent by a margin of 5 or more, you have Overwhelmingly Succeeded. This type of success is often simply called an Overwhelm. […] An overwhelm means you've not only succeeded, but you've done something better than the average success would be."

Verb
  1. 1
    To engulf, surge over and submerge.

    "The dinghy was overwhelmed by the great wave."

  2. 2
    charge someone with too many tasks wordnet
  3. 3
    To overpower, crush.

    "In December 1939 the Soviet Union attacked Finland with overwhelming force."

  4. 4
    overcome by superior force wordnet
  5. 5
    To overpower emotionally.

    "He was overwhelmed with guilt."

Show 3 more definitions
  1. 6
    cover completely or make imperceptible wordnet
  2. 7
    To cause to surround, to cover.

    "I lay Turpentine all over the same: then I overwhelm a broader pipe about the first"

  3. 8
    overcome, as with emotions or perceptual stimuli wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
submergeoverpowerdevourabsorbafflictaggrieve

Example

More examples

"I didn't mean to overwhelm you."

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English overwhelmen, equivalent to over- + whelm.

Related phrases

too many balls in air

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.