whelm /ʍɛlm/verb 5noun 2forms 3 verb5 •(informal) To emotionally affect at an intensity in between underwhelm and overwhelm; to just satisfy or just meet expectations. •(no longer used) To overcome with emotion; to overwhelm. •(no longer used) To bury, to cover; to engulf, to submerge.Giue fire: she is my prize, or Ocean whelme them all. — 1597 •(no longer used) To throw (something) over a thing so as to cover it. •(no longer used) To ruin or destroy. noun2 •(literary) A surge of water.I wonder about things and the people between us. The currents, the feedback, and the whelms. The sharp cracks between trees, and the tolling between the knees. — 2004 •A wooden drainpipe, a hollowed out tree trunk, turned with the cavity downwards to form an arched watercourse.A whelm was a wooden drainpipe, a hollowed-out tree trunk, "whelmed down" or turned with the concavity downwards to form an arched watercourse. — 2023 formswhelmed · whelming · whelms
