overwhelmed
- 1Simple past and past participle of overwhelm.
The floodwaters overwhelmed the town's defenses within hours.
He was overwhelmed by the generosity of complete strangers.
Note
One spelling does double duty. It is the simple past of a finished action (the tide overwhelmed the wall), and it is the participle that follows have or be (had overwhelmed, was overwhelmed). Once it describes a state rather than an event, it starts behaving like an adjective that takes more and most. Degree is the clue: someone can feel more overwhelmed than yesterday, which suits emotional overpowering far better than being engulfed by water.
overwhelmed is a form of overwhelm
overwhelm, verb: To affect someone so strongly with emotion that they lose composure or the ability to cope. Full entry
- Forms
- overwhelmoverwhelms he/she/itoverwhelming -ing formoverwhelmed past tense, past participle
- Spelling
- overwhelm → overwhelmed: add -ed
Use it in a sentence
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