What's the difference between inundate and overwhelm?

Inundate


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To cover with a flood; to overflow; to deluge; to flood; as, the river inundated the town.
  • (v. t.) To fill with an overflowing abundance or superfluity; as, the country was inundated with bills of credit.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) That was what the earlier debate over “currency wars” – when emerging markets complained about being inundated by financial inflows from the US – was all about.
  • (2) Allen's team has used the new technique to work out whether global warming worsened the UK floods in autumn 2000, which inundated 10,000 properties, disrupted power supplies and led to train services being cancelled, motorways closed and 11,000 people evacuated from their homes - at a total cost of £1bn.
  • (3) Where basement membrane and perivascular clefts were not yet inundated with HRP, sites of vesicular emptying of HRP at the tissue front were identified.
  • (4) He said since he made those comments he had been "inundated with accounts from people … saying there are indeed many cases where people are left without benefits, without any support, for sometimes weeks on end".
  • (5) Yet, when Summers' name came up, the White House was inundated with petitions: 20 senators opposing his nomination this summer , 300 economists (300!)
  • (6) There have been dozens of inundations in the course of the world's history, and whoever wrote this bit of the Bible had probably experienced one.
  • (7) As a second year social work student, I'm inundated with lots of information, from work placements and lectures to reading lists.
  • (8) The islands that make up the Maldives are threatened with complete inundation, probably by the end of the century, as ice sheets melt and sea levels rise catastrophically, thanks to global warming.
  • (9) As concerns the valence of the natural focus, the most important was the inundated forest in the Drnholec locality.
  • (10) Crop-producing areas have been inundated, dealing a crippling blow to the agriculture-based economy and threatening a food crisis.
  • (11) We are looking to make sure the international community can assist in the resettlement exercise and rebuilding some of the communities.” Climate change is likely to be a massive driver of forced migration over the next century, as densely populated, low-lying areas become unliveable because of rising sea levels, inundation, and salinity.
  • (12) The result is the inundation of islands from higher tides and surges.
  • (13) Mollath has been inundated with public support in the form of thousands of letters and internet posts, many comparing his fight to that of David versus Goliath.
  • (14) … and the effects on migration One of the many impacts of climate breakdown – aside from such minor matters as the inundation of cities, the loss of food production and curtailment of water supplies – will be the mass movement of people, to an extent that dwarfs current migration.
  • (15) Small island states such as Tuvalu and the Maldives are already threatened by inundation.
  • (16) One other issue is raised in Tewkesbury: the response of Severn Trent to the inundation of its water treatment plant at The Mythe, which left 140,000 homes without running water.
  • (17) The floods inundated rice fields just as they were to be harvested.
  • (18) And at this rate we will never find out.” Among the sites worst affected by trawlers is Doggerland, a vast area that was inhabited during the Mesolithic period 8,000 years ago, but has since been inundated by the waters of the North Sea.
  • (19) Finding the earlier results generally applicable, it presents a model of the function of stimulus intensity control in schizophrenia, which suggests that acute schizophrenics are particularly vulnerable to being inundated by stimuli, and therefore, that in order to protect themselves, they tend to reduce the perceived intensity of stimuli.
  • (20) The Florida resort lies less than 10 feet above sea level; an increasing number of tropical storms are inundating the city; and it is built on a dome of porous limestone which is absorbing the rising seawater.

Overwhelm


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To cover over completely, as by a great wave; to overflow and bury beneath; to ingulf; hence, figuratively, to immerse and bear down; to overpower; to crush; to bury; to oppress, etc., overpoweringly.
  • (v. t.) To project or impend over threateningly.
  • (v. t.) To cause to surround, to cover.
  • (n.) The act of overwhelming.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The following conclusions emerge: (i) when the 3' or the 3' penultimate base of the oligonucleotide mismatched an allele, no amplification product could be detected; (ii) when the mismatches were 3 and 4 bases from the 3' end of the primer, differential amplification was still observed, but only at certain concentrations of magnesium chloride; (iii) the mismatched allele can be detected in the presence of a 40-fold excess of the matched allele; (iv) primers as short as 13 nucleotides were effective; and (v) the specificity of the amplification could be overwhelmed by greatly increasing the concentration of target DNA.
  • (2) She added: “We will continue to act upon the overwhelming majority view of our shareholders.” The vote was the second year running Ryanair had suffered a rebellion on pay.
  • (3) T cells admixed in the germinal centers were overwhelmingly of the T-helper type.
  • (4) Unfortunately for the governor, he could win both states and still face the overwhelming likelihood of failure if he doesn't take Ohio, where the poll found Obama out front 51-43.
  • (5) In Britain, the European election is overwhelmingly seen through the prism of domestic politics.
  • (6) Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian Asked if Watson should seek to refresh his mandate after Corbyn’s overwhelming victory among members, McCluskey added: “Well, if Tom wants to try to refresh his mandate it would be interesting to see what happens.” Watson said it was time “to be proud of our party”, because the Conservatives were beatable and the prime minister, Theresa May, could call an election any time.
  • (7) The government acknowledged it had been overwhelmed by the devastation from the deadliest quake in Nepal in over 80 years.
  • (8) He made me laugh and cry, and his courage in writing about what he was going through was sometimes quite overwhelming.
  • (9) Although alpha 1-antiprotease (alpha 1-AP) binds and inactivates NE and is the major antielastase of the lower respiratory tract, antielastase defenses may be overwhelmed in CF, leading to progressive lung damage.
  • (10) And HAP has shown that the key finding that debt slows growth was driven overwhelmingly by the exclusion of four years of data from New Zealand.
  • (11) Cathepsin D-like acid proteinase existed overwhelmingly in the mucosal layer and was hardly detected in the gastric juice.
  • (12) Hence, reaction of chemical carcinogen with nuclear DNA is possible only when the cell is overwhelmed leading to cell death, or following a temporary breach of the nuclear membrane control points, but the DNA damage in the latter is totally reparable.
  • (13) The facts are clear: the overwhelming majority of EU citizens in Britain are contributors, not freeloaders.” But that was not the official position of any of the parties involved, so it went mostly unsaid.
  • (14) Of 54 patients with poor-grade aneurysms, ventriculostomy was placed in 47 (87.0%) and yielded high ICP's in the overwhelming majority, with the mean ICP being 40.2 cm H2O.
  • (15) There is overwhelming evidence, today, that such factors are involved in the manifestation of acute as well as chronic, non-specific as well as well as specific inflammation.
  • (16) Mobile phone networks, overwhelmed by demand, were down for hours, with authorities advising people to use email or text messages instead.
  • (17) The immunity was enacted by an overwhelming bipartisan vote, with the support of leading Democrats including Barack Obama, who had promised - when seeking his party's nomination - to filibuster any bill that contained retroactive telecom immunity.
  • (18) There’s an overwhelming sadness among kids like that who have been kept there for a very long time.
  • (19) Panic attacks would overwhelm her periodically and she experienced regular “ scanxiety ” – the feelings of dread that grip patients before new tests.
  • (20) In the meantime, Malaysia Airlines’ overwhelming focus will be the same as it has been from the outset – to provide the families with a comprehensive support programme.