engulf

Etymology

en- + gulf

verb

1. (transitive) To overwhelm.
   Desperation engulfed her after her daughter's death.
   Shaken by the biggest challenge to their authority in years, Brazil’s leaders made conciliatory gestures on Tuesday to try to defuse the protests engulfing the nation’s cities. June 18 2013, Simon Romero, “Protests Widen as Brazilians Chide Leaders”, in New York Times, retrieved 2013-06-21
   The blank spaces of Mallarmé, the silence of Maesterlinck, the inaniloquous repetitive babblings of Gertrude Stein are the abyss which threatens to engulf creative effort if it continues in this direction. 1934, The Modern Monthly, volume 8, page 308
2. (transitive) To surround; to cover; to submerge.
   Only Noah and his family survived when the Flood engulfed the world.
3. (transitive) To cast into a gulf.