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
-
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
-
had engulfedperfect
-
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 new study found that this stimulation weakens the macrophages' ability to engulf neutrophils.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 3, 2026
Experiments in cell cultures also showed that aging reduced the ability of tissue resident macrophages to engulf and digest worn-out neutrophils, while the EP2 blocking drug significantly restored that ability.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 3, 2026
"Then there was fog, smoke, something that seemed to suddenly engulf us," Muthunathan, 46, told AFP on Friday, showing a phone video she recorded of a torrent surging towards her.
From Barron's ● Aug. 29, 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
Zero and infinity are eternally locked in a struggle to engulf all the numbers.
From "Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea" by Charles Seife
Scaffolding engulfs the inside of the giant multi-billion-dollar structure, rising all the way up to the 100-metre-high ceiling.
From Barron's ● Dec. 26, 2025
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
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
Take, for example, the wildfire smoke that now regularly engulfs my city.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 15, 2024
And then the scent of jasmine engulfs us.
From "I'll Give You the Sun" by Jandy Nelson
It connected the molecular assembly to the cell's internal skeleton, allowing force to be transmitted across the surface of the material being engulfed.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 5, 2026
Uttam and Sandy Shiralkar are still coming to terms with the loss of their family home in Stourbridge after it was engulfed by a wildfire in August.
From BBC ● Sep. 29, 2026
“In five minutes, it felt like the whole house was engulfed in flames,” Jackson said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 24, 2026
He also points to the large lithium-ion battery units installed alongside many solar farms, drawing a comparison to fires that have occasionally engulfed similar batteries in electric bikes.
From BBC ● Sep. 23, 2026
Bystanders watched as the mansion was engulfed in flames, lighting up the night sky.
From "In the Shadow of Liberty" by Kenneth C. Davis
On Tuesday evening, footage emerged showing a huge plume of smoke engulfing an oil tanker off the coast of Sochi, along the Black Sea in southern Russia.
From BBC ● Oct. 7, 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
Glowing magenta, she twirled above what looked to be a rising river, a physical representation of the swirling, engulfing thoughts that anxiety can provoke as she performed the song by the same name.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 30, 2026
Rescuers in Nepal and China were still battling Saturday to locate thousands of people missing days after a deadly, tsunami-like wall of water and debris swept through the Himalayan region, engulfing villages.
From Barron's ● Aug. 29, 2026
A moment later he was battling with the complex undergrowth that was already engulfing the scar.
From "Lord of the Flies" by William Golding
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
