Overwhelm

WORD OF THE DAY

overwhelm / verb / oh-ver-WELM

Definition
1: upset, overthrow
2a: to cover over completely
2b: submerge
2c: to overcome by superior force or numbers
2d: to overpower in thought or feeling

Examples
"Saturday was the first day for reservations, with seating limited so as not to overwhelm the new staff and to avoid long wait times for orders."
— Cheryl V. Jackson, The Indianapolis Star, 17 Apr. 2022

The rising waters could then meet with a coastal storm surge that raises the level of San Francisco Bay by several feet to wash out low-lying roadways and overwhelm urban areas from the East Bay to San Jose.
— Sam Whiting, San Francisco Chronicle, 12 Aug. 2022

Did You Know?
Let’s face it: life can get overwhelming.
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?
 The answer, unassumingly, is just as often as one overwhelms you—the two verbs are in fact largely synonymous.
Both come from Middle English whelmen, meaning "to overturn," and overwhelm has always been more popular, perhaps because the emphatic redundancy of overwhelm makes it seem more apt for describing reactions to powerful forces or feelings.