different between overwhelm vs quicken

English

Etymology

From Middle English overwhelmen, equivalent to over- +? whelm.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /???v????lm/, /???v??w?lm/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?o?v????lm/, /?o?v??w?lm/
• (Scotland) IPA^(key): /?ov????lm/
• Rhymes: -?lm

Verb

overwhelm (third-person singular simple present overwhelms, present participle overwhelming, simple past and past participle overwhelmed)

1. To engulf, surge over and submerge.

   Synonym: swamp

2. To overpower, crush.

   In December 1939 the Soviet Union attacked Finland with overwhelming force.

   • The sea overwhelmed their enemies.

3. To overpower emotionally.
4. To cause to surround, to cover.

   1684, Denis Papin, Instrument to make turpentine penetrate plaster and wood using the airpump

   • I lay Turpentine all over the same: then I overwhelm a broader pipe about the first

Derived terms

• overwhelming

Related terms

• whelm

Antonyms

• underwhelm

Translations

Noun

overwhelm (plural overwhelms)

1. The state or condition of being overwhelmed.

See also

• too many balls in the air

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?kw?k?n/
• Rhymes: -?k?n

Etymology 1

From Middle English quikenen, equivalent to quick +? -en. Cognate Danish kvikne (“to quicken, revive”), Swedish kvickna (“to revive”), Icelandic kvikna (“to turn on, ignite”).

Verb

quicken (third-person singular simple present quickens, present participle quickening, simple past and past participle quickened)

1. (transitive, literary) To give life to; to animate, make alive, revive. [from 14thc.]
   • 1526, William Tyndale, trans. Bible, Luke XVII:

     Whosoever will goo about to save his lyfe, shall loose it: And whosoever shall loose his life, shall quycken it.

   • 1610, The Tempest, by Shakespeare, act 3 scene 1

     The mistress which I serve quickens what's dead, / And makes my labours pleasures

   • Like a fruitful garden without an hedge, that quickens the appetite to enjoy so tempting a prize.

2. (intransitive, literary) To come back to life, receive life. [from 14th c.]
3. (intransitive) To take on a state of activity or vigour comparable to life; to be roused, excited. [from 15th c.]
4. (intransitive) Of a pregnant woman: to first feel the movements of the foetus, or reach the stage of pregnancy at which this takes place; of a foetus: to begin to move. [from 16th c.]
   • 2013, Hilary Mantel, ‘Royal Bodies’, London Review of Books, 35.IV:

     Royal pregnancies were not announced in those days; the news generally crept out, and public anticipation was aroused only when the child quickened.

5. (transitive) To make quicker; to hasten, speed up. [from 17thc.]
   • 2000, George RR Martin, A Storm of Swords, Bantam 2011, p.47:

     That day Arya quickened their pace, keeping the horses to a trot as long as she dared, and sometimes spurring to a gallop when she spied a flat stretch of field before them.

6. (intransitive) To become faster. [from 17thc.]

   • Breezes blowing from beds of iris quickened her breath with their perfume; she saw the tufted lilacs sway in the wind, and the streamers of mauve-tinted wistaria swinging, all a-glisten with golden bees; she saw a crimson cardinal winging through the foliage, and amorous tanagers flashing like scarlet flames athwart the pines.
7. (shipbuilding) To shorten the radius of (a curve); to make (a curve) sharper.

Translations

Etymology 2

Apparently from quick, with uncertain final element.

Noun

quicken (plural quickens)

1. (now chiefly Northern England) The European rowan, Sorbus aucuparia. [from 15th c.]
   • 1924, Ford Madox Ford, Some Do Not…, Penguin 2012 (Parade's End), p, 104:

     Miss Wannop moved off down the path: it was only suited for Indian file, and had on the left hand a ten-foot, untrimmed quicken hedge, the hawthorn blossoms just beginning to blacken […].

Synonyms

• quickbeam

See also

• quickens

German

Pronunciation

Adjective

quicken

1. inflection of quick:
   1. strong genitive masculine/neuter singular
   2. weak/mixed genitive/dative all-gender singular
   3. strong/weak/mixed accusative masculine singular
   4. strong dative plural
   5. weak/mixed all-case plural

Old Dutch

Etymology

From quic +? -en.

Verb

quicken

1. to come to life

Inflection

This verb needs an inflection-table template.

Descendants

• Middle Dutch: quicken

Further reading

• “kwikken”, in Oudnederlands Woordenboek, 2012