noun, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   An overthrow, an overturn.

Verb

1. 1
   To engulf, to submerge. British, Scotland, dialectal, transitive
2. 2
   To throw (something) over a thing so as to cover it. British, Scotland, dialectal, transitive
3. 3
   To turn (something) upside down, to invert; to capsize, to overturn; (specifically) to drink a glass (of an alcoholic beverage) completely. British, Scotland, dialectal, transitive
4. 4
   To confound, to disrupt. British, Scotland, dialectal, figuratively, transitive
5. 5
   To capsize; to walk clumsily; to fall over. British, Scotland, dialectal, intransitive

Synonyms

All synonyms

whelm

Etymology

A frequentative form of whelm equivalent to whelm + -le, or formed from that word by metathesis.

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