Coffee is the second largest traded commodity in the world, next to crude oil. It’s also one of the oldest commodities, with over 2.25 billion cups of coffee consumed worldwide daily.
overwhelm, overpower, sweep over, whelm, overcome, overtake
(verb) overcome, as with emotions or perceptual stimuli
Source: WordNet® 3.1
whelm (third-person singular simple present whelms, present participle whelming, simple past and past participle whelmed)
(transitive) To bury, to cover; to engulf, to submerge.
Synonyms: overwhelm, whemmel (Britain dialectal, Scotland)
Antonym: unwhelm
(transitive, obsolete) To throw (something) over a thing so as to cover it.
Synonym: whemmel (Britain dialectal, Scotland)
(transitive, obsolete) To ruin or destroy.
(intransitive) To overcome with emotion; to overwhelm.
Today, the verb overwhelm is much more common than whelm.
whelm (plural whelms)
(poetic, also, figuratively) A surge of water.
Source: Wiktionary
Whelm, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Whelmed; p. pr. & vb. n. Whelming.] Etym: [OE. whelmen to turn over, akin to OE. whelven, AS. whelfan, hwylfan, in , , to overwhelm, cover over; akin to OS. bihwelbian, D. welven to arch, G. wölben, OHG. welben, Icel. hvelfa to overturn; cf. Gr.
1. To cover with water or other fluid; to cover by immersion in something that envelops on all sides; to overwhelm; to ingulf. She is my prize, or ocean whelm them all! Shak. The whelming billow and the faithless oar. Gay.
2. Fig.: To cover completely, as if with water; to immerse; to overcome; as, to whelm one in sorrows. "The whelming weight of crime." J. H. Newman.
3. To throw (something) over a thing so as to cover it. [Obs.] Mortimer.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition
18 June 2025
(noun) large South American evergreen tree trifoliate leaves and drupes with nutlike seeds used as food and a source of cooking oil
Coffee is the second largest traded commodity in the world, next to crude oil. It’s also one of the oldest commodities, with over 2.25 billion cups of coffee consumed worldwide daily.