overwhelming

1. 1
   adjective

   So powerful, forceful, or intense that it cannot be resisted or withstood.

   The defenders were beaten back by an overwhelming assault.

   A sudden, overwhelming sense of relief washed over the survivors.

   Similaroverpowering, irresistible, crushing, devastating

   Note

   Its most settled partner is majority. George Orwell, writing in 1943–44, has the animals agree "by an overwhelming majority" that rats are comrades. The word stretches from sheer physical scale, as in the towering height of the Eiger, to inward weights that press on a person: an overwhelming faith, an overwhelming responsibility. What unites these uses is a size that leaves no room to push back.

2. 2
   adjective

   Very great or intense in amount, degree, or extent.

   The proposal passed with overwhelming support from voters.

   The evidence against the suspect was overwhelming.

   Similarmassive, enormous, huge, immense, vast

   Oppositeslight, negligible, meager, minimal

3. 3
   adjective

   Extreme in degree or extent.

   The summer heat was overwhelming, well past anything they had known.

   They fought on against overwhelming odds.

   Similarextreme, intense, unbearable, oppressive, insurmountable

   Oppositemild, moderate, slight

4. 4
   verb

   Present participle of overwhelm.

   The flood was overwhelming the town's defenses within hours.

   Constant emails kept overwhelming her throughout the day.

   Note

   Overwhelm plus -ing, carrying the verb's whole range of meanings: water that engulfs and submerges, force that crushes, feeling that overpowers. The way to tell it apart from the adjective of irresistible force is the object. In "the flood was overwhelming the town," it is the verb at work. In "the flood was overwhelming," it stands alone as a description, and only that use accepts more and most.

5. 5
   noununcountable

   A state or situation of being overwhelmed by too much pressure, emotion, or stimulation.

   By December, the sheer overwhelming of deadlines left her unable to focus.

   He described the overwhelming that hit him in the first week of parenthood.

   Similaroverload, pressure

   Note

   Unlike the verbal -ing form, this noun can be counted, so it takes a plural. David Ford's Theology: A Very Short Introduction (2013) speaks of "other overwhelmings" that have always been part of the human condition, such as disease, famine and war. The plural names each separate force that swamps a life. It also lets a writer list such forces side by side instead of describing a single state.

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