engulfed

verb

past tense of engulf
as in flooded
to cover with a flood high waves from the hurricane engulfed large areas of the coastal community

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of engulfed Fire engulfed Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, a major government hospital in Islamabad, on Wednesday. — ABC News, 30 Aug. 2026 Chinese state media reported there is no sign of survivors at a border crossing which was engulfed by the flood wave. — Sophie Tanno, CNN Money, 29 Aug. 2026 The Santa Clara Police Department said officers who responded to a report of a vehicle collision found a GMC SUV on its side fully engulfed in fire and a silver Honda pickup truck. — Carlos E. Castañeda, CBS News, 27 Aug. 2026 In Tibet, the roaring mudslide that struck Wednesday engulfed a multistory port building and swallowed a bus parking lot at the land border crossing of Gyirong Port. — Niranjan Shrestha, Chicago Tribune, 27 Aug. 2026 Gunshots followed by an inferno Police responded to the home on Sunday evening and heard gunshots coming from out back, just before the house was completely engulfed in flames. — Matthew Brown, Los Angeles Times, 26 Aug. 2026 Less than an hour after the chaos began, the front of the house was fully engulfed in flames. — N'dea Yancey-Bragg, USA Today, 26 Aug. 2026 That is to say nothing of periodic smaller disasters, such as last year’s Texas floods that engulfed young campers; the Los Angeles wildfires that chewed through entire neighborhoods; and Typhoon Kalmaegi, which walloped Vietnam and the Philippines. — Peter Prengaman, Fortune, 24 Aug. 2026 While the region is engulfed in conflict, the market is showing itself to be immune to the impact of it. — Kathryn Hopkins, Footwear News, 21 Aug. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for engulfed
  1. flooded
  2. overwhelmed
  3. drowned
  4. submerged
Verb
  • Meta is rolling out an obvious fix to make its AI glasses less creepy amid backlash over the glasses’ non-consensual recordings that have flooded the Internet.
    — Ashley Belanger, ArsTechnica, 28 Aug. 2026
  • But New Yorkers flooded social media after news broke, and eventually a petition was made in an effort to save the theater.
    — Amethyst Martinez, USA Today, 28 Aug. 2026
Definition of flooded
Verb
  • Reflecting on her journey, Jones told me last year that her best career advice is to stay open to new experiences and not get overwhelmed by distant goals.
    — Sheryl Estrada, Fortune, 28 Aug. 2026
  • My mother was never one for parting phrases, mainly because she was overwhelmed by a form of timidity that verged on self-erasure.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 26 Aug. 2026
Definition of overwhelmed
Verb
  • Andrea Yates, the Texas mother who drowned her five children in their bathtub in 2001, was found not guilty by reason of insanity in a 2006 retrial.
    — Nicki Brown, CNN Money, 1 Sep. 2026
  • Another teen drowned early in the season, on May 18, in Lake Michigan waters.
    — Charles Selle, Chicago Tribune, 31 Aug. 2026
Definition of drowned
Verb
  • Thapa said many of the bodies had remained submerged in floodwaters for about four days and were already decomposing by the time they were recovered.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 30 Aug. 2026
  • The kind where you’re blindfolded, submerged into a dark room, escorted to your seat, and left to experience an entire meal in near-total darkness?
    — Tiana Randall, Forbes.com, 22 Aug. 2026
Definition of submerged

Browse Nearby Words

engulf
engulfed
engulfing
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Cite this Entry

“Engulfed.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/engulfed. Accessed 5 Sep. 2026.

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