Entry Word: overwhelm

Function: verb

Meaning: 1 to subject to incapacitating emotional or mental stress <just the thought of how much work there is to do overwhelms me>

Synonyms carry away, crush, devastate, floor, oppress, overcome, overmaster, overpower, prostrate, snow under, swamp, whelm

Related Words deluge, drown; confute, defeat, refute; demoralize, distress, disturb, rock, shatter, stagger, unman, unnerve, upset

2 to cover or become filled with a flood <that spring the massive runoff from melting snows overwhelmed the valley> — see flood