inundate
/ˈɪn.ənˌdeɪt/ verb
Forms inundates inundating inundated
- verb To cover with large amounts of water; to flood. “The Dutch would sometimes inundate the land to hinder the Spanish army.”
- verb To overwhelm. “The agency was inundated with phone calls.”
Synonyms
Etymology
First attested in 1623; borrowed from Latin inundātus, the perfect passive participle of inundō (“to flood, overflow”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)), from in- + undō (“to overflow, wave”), from unda (“wave”) + -ō (verb-forming suffix).
Webster’s 1913
- verb To cover with a flood; to overflow; to deluge; to flood; as, the river inundated the town.
- verb To fill with an overflowing abundance or superfluity; as, the country was inundated with bills of credit.
Etymology [L. inundatus, p. p. of inundare to inundate; pref. in- in + undare to rise in waves, to overflow, fr. unda a wave. See Undulate.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “inundate”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details