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OVERWHELMING
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Very strong; urgently felt
Example:
overwhelming joy
Synonyms:
consuming; overwhelming
Classified under:
Similar:
intense (possessing or displaying a distinctive feature to a heightened degree)
Sense 2
Meaning:
So strong as to be irresistible
Example:
an overwhelming majority
Synonyms:
overpowering; overwhelming
Classified under:
Similar:
irresistible; resistless (impossible to resist; overpowering)
II. (verb)
Sense 1
-ing form of the verb overwhelm
Context examples:
The study said the overwhelming majority of pollution-related deaths come in developing countries where the authors say leaders are more concerned about building their economies and infrastructure than environmental regulations.
(Pollution is the World’s No. 1 Killer, VOA)
Neurotic reactions to unusual, severe, or overwhelming military stress.
(Combat Neurosis, NLM, Medical Subject Headings)
A disorder characterized by an enduring pattern of avoidance of social situations and interpersonal contact due to overwhelming feelings of social inadequacy and a hypersensitivity to negative evaluation or rejection.
(Avoidant Personality Disorder, NCI Thesaurus)
A disorder characterized by an enduring pattern of grandiose beliefs and arrogant behavior together with an overwhelming need for admiration and a lack of empathy for (and even exploitation of) others.
(Narcissistic Personality Disorder, NCI Thesaurus)
The cumulative proof was overwhelming.
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
He was firmly planted on his legs; his feet struck the deck squarely and with surety; every movement of a muscle, from the heave of the shoulders to the tightening of the lips about the cigar, was decisive, and seemed to come out of a strength that was excessive and overwhelming.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
Knowing what sets regulatory mechanisms of inflammatory proteins in motion may contribute to developing new therapies for the overwhelming number of individuals with chronic inflammatory conditions, including nearly 25 million Americans who suffer from autoimmune diseases, Hong said.
(Just 20 Minutes of Walking May Reduce Inflammation in Your Body, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)
Add to this, the pleasure of seeing the various revolutions of states and empires; the changes in the lower and upper world; ancient cities in ruins, and obscure villages become the seats of kings; famous rivers lessening into shallow brooks; the ocean leaving one coast dry, and overwhelming another; the discovery of many countries yet unknown; barbarity overrunning the politest nations, and the most barbarous become civilized.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
" Once more, argumentative hostility woke within me. I could not accept such an overwhelming idea as he suggested; so, with an attempt to argue of which I was even at the moment ashamed, I said:—She may have been placed here since last night.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
But why should I dwell upon the incidents that followed this last overwhelming event?
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
