What's the difference between oblivion and overwhelm?

Oblivion


Definition:

  • (n.) The act of forgetting, or the state of being forgotten; cessation of remembrance; forgetfulness.
  • (n.) Official ignoring of offenses; amnesty, or general pardon; as, an act of oblivion.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) 'If you meet, you drink …' Thus introduced to intoxicating liquors under auspices both secular and sacred, the offering of alms for oblivion I took to be the custom of the country in which I had been born.
  • (2) What publicity the chief minister of the western Indian state of Gujarat could attract outside his homeland was only ever condemnatory, and his political career, barely begun, appeared on the verge of oblivion.
  • (3) We aren't surprised that the Romans had nothing to say about, say, the nearby Avebury stone circle, because it's far less manifest than Stonehenge – and by extension, the oblivion of time that blankets scores of British Neolithic and bronze age sites is in keeping with our current ignorance: to this day, so few people visit them that their enigmatic character is itself underimagined.
  • (4) We would be prevented from doing so; we are prevented from doing so.” Describing the situation as agonising, she said: “Whether you are a Syrian NGO [non-governmental organisation] on the frontline in eastern Aleppo being bombed into oblivion, or a UN worker sitting in Damascus or accompanying convoys across conflict lines, we are all really taking risks and being mentally pummelled by some of the positions in which we are put.” The deteriorating situation in Syria and continual bombardment of eastern Aleppo has raised the political stakes to new heights in recent days, with Russia being directly and repeatedly accused of war crimes because of its support for Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad.
  • (5) Admittedly, there has been a bit of sour grapes in the English response to the success of Dempsey et al, and no doubt we will be treading those grapes into wine and drinking ourselves into oblivion if Team USA get much further – they are, as today's typically excitable NY Daily News front page informs us, now just "four wins from glory" .
  • (6) Sunday sunshine saw dips for films right across the market, including for Oblivion, but the headline number remains robust.
  • (7) How would Moo sell business cards with your personal photos on them if they could be sued into oblivion should those photos turn out to infringe copyright?
  • (8) Unlike any other animal in this country - except, perhaps, the mole, whose condition is, if anything, even more opaque, and just as likely to be following its own chute to oblivion - the hedgehog has always been a symbol and embodiment of something subtle and tender in the landscape.
  • (9) That is the way to economic disaster and political oblivion.
  • (10) Oblivion was preferable.” Lu momentarily entertained the idea of the family administering the deadly syringe together.
  • (11) He denies charges of sodomy , which he described in court last month as "a vile and desperate attempt at character assassination" and a bid to consign him to political oblivion.
  • (12) He cautions though that "many wearable devices will have their five minutes of fame at shows like CES before disappearing into oblivion".
  • (13) Although Hartley's understanding of the central nervous system has long been superseded, his general ideas prefigure some aspects of contemporary neurophysiology and philosophy of mind and thus provide a further reason for rescuing his vibrationism from oblivion.
  • (14) As the government has been warned repeatedly, services such as libraries and roads will be cut almost to oblivion, even as the bar for receiving care is raised to the point where all but the most needy are excluded.
  • (15) Given this, it is of major strategic importance that this company not be allowed to slip in to oblivion."
  • (16) All that then remains will be a choice between the alternative routes to oblivion that Clegg has charted – absorption into the Conservative party or independent annihilation when Labour tells the floating voter, "If you want a Tory government, vote Liberal Democrat".
  • (17) It was consigned to oblivion in Flexner's plan, but survived.
  • (18) With Dido and Norah Jones ruling the album chart, the Beatles and Led Zeppelin selling plenty of DVDs, Duran Duran and Tears for Fears suddenly returning from oblivion and Franz Ferdinand achieving instant success, it looks as if the fifty-quid bloke is keeping the music business afloat.
  • (19) Turnbull has always been the “voters’ choice” candidate, the one the Liberal party might turn to if it were facing electoral oblivion, the candidate with broad appeal.
  • (20) A standalone online entertainment channel might as well be called Oblivion.

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.