engulf
Americanverb (used with object)
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engulfs,
present (3rd person singular)
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engulfed,
past participle, past
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engulfing
present participle
verb
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to immerse, plunge, bury, or swallow up
-
(often passive) to overwhelm
engulfed by debts
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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engulfsimple
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engulfssimple
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have engulfedperfect
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has engulfedperfect
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am engulfingprogressive
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are engulfingprogressive
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is engulfingprogressive
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have been engulfingperfect progressive
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has been engulfingperfect progressive
Past
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engulfedsimple
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had engulfedperfect
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was engulfingprogressive
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were engulfingprogressive
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had been engulfingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of engulf
Explanation
Engulf is a verb that means being completely surrounded, soaked, or covered. Fire, snow, smoke, flood waters, or even violence are a few things that could engulf you. Suppose an amusement park had a ride called Into the Whirlpool. Sounds like one for thrill-seekers who aren't afraid of water. Riders should expect to get lost inside, fully absorbed by the experience. The word engulf comes from the Old French word golfe, meaning "whirlpool," and the prefix en-, meaning "in or into." Riders of Into the Whirlpool should expect to feel engulfed — surrounded by water and completely covered.
Vocabulary lists containing engulf
Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" Speech (1963)
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"A Sound of Thunder" by Ray Bradbury
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Divergent
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The findings suggest that successful cleanup depends on more than receiving the correct chemical signal to engulf apoptotic debris.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 5, 2026
"Then there was fog, smoke, something that seemed to suddenly engulf us," Muthunathan, 46, told AFP, showing a video she recorded on her phone of a torrent surging towards her.
From Barron's ● Aug. 28, 2026
Leverkus also organised a structural protection training course for locals to learn how to shield buildings from embers that can quickly spur fires that engulf entire towns.
From BBC ● Aug. 9, 2026
“Dispatches From Grief” recounts the unrelenting emotional struggle that continues to engulf Ms. Crittenden.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 8, 2026
At one point the streams that crossed Highway 3 became so swollen I worried they would engulf the ambulance.
From "Mountains Beyond Mountains" by Tracy Kidder and Michael French
A Democratic lawmaker resigned Tuesday, becoming the third member of the US House of Representatives to step down in just over a week as a wave of ethics scandals engulfs Congress.
From Barron's ● Apr. 21, 2026
By soon, they mean any time before the sun engulfs us all, which will happen sometime in the next five billion years.
From Salon ● Feb. 25, 2025
After a flood engulfs the cat’s home, it finds itself in a small sailboat along with the other three animals.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 19, 2024
The smoke from the farm fires engulfs Delhi every winter and hangs low in the atmosphere as wind speeds reduce during winter months.
From BBC ● Nov. 19, 2024
And then the scent of jasmine engulfs us.
From "I'll Give You the Sun" by Jandy Nelson
The epithelial cells engulfed those droplets as well.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 5, 2026
And for much of the game Sunday, gloom once again engulfed McVay and a team that opened the season as a heavy Super Bowl favorite.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 4, 2026
The memoir, Swan Song, details revelations about the "crisis that engulfed the Royal Family after her death", the paper says.
From BBC ● Sep. 16, 2026
I saw a utility van and crawled underneath, but by then the cloud had engulfed everything.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 8, 2026
My body feels like it’s engulfed in flames.
From "The Manifestor Prophecy" by Angie Thomas
The conflict between these characters is greater than the morality tale engulfing them.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 16, 2026
A parallel panic is also engulfing the Pentagon, where Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and his loyalists are scrambling to contain a massive internal leak.
From Salon ● Sep. 1, 2026
Macrophages are among the immune system's first responders and are best known for engulfing pathogens.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 26, 2026
He said he jumped overboard with an elderly man as the fire came closer, and saw flames engulfing "almost all" of the ferry as he looked back.
From Barron's ● Aug. 3, 2026
“I thought, last year, that I loved you—but that was as a zephyr to a gale, compared to this engulfing, enveloping worship of now,” she wrote.
From "The Woman All Spies Fear" by Amy Butler Greenfield
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
