Literary notes about engulfed (AI summary)
In literature, “engulfed” vividly conveys the idea of being completely overtaken by a force—whether that be nature, emotion, or even ideas. Authors often use it to illustrate how a character or setting is enveloped and transformed by an overwhelming presence, as when a town is swallowed by the sea ([1]) or an army is inexorably drawn into battle ([2]). At times, the term captures both physical and metaphorical inundation, such as a soul submerged in despair ([3]) or a mind overcome by a wave of introspection ([4]). Across varied contexts—from the literal swallowing of objects by water ([5], [6]) to the more abstract inundation by thoughts or fate ([7], [8])—“engulfed” serves as a powerful marker of total immersion and transformation.
- The whole town on the seashore was engulfed.
— from Korean folk tales : by Pang Im and Yuk Yi - And Moscow engulfed the army ever deeper and deeper.
— from War and Peace by graf Leo Tolstoy - When he comes out of it, he says that he has seen two souls, one aspiring toward Nirvana, the other engulfed in the inferno.
— from The Complete Opera Book The Stories of the Operas, together with 400 of the Leading Airs and Motives in Musical Notation by Gustav Kobbé - Everything material is soon engulfed in the matter of the whole, and every active cause is swiftly resumed into the Universal reason.
— from The Meditations of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus by Emperor of Rome Marcus Aurelius - There followed a hiss as it engulfed the tiny blaze at the end of the fuse, and then a little spiral of smoke eddied upward.
— from Motor Matt in Brazil; or, Under The Amazon by Stanley R. Matthews - And albeit the vessel had been rammed and was [103] sinking, her men ascended to the spar deck and fought till the waters engulfed them.
— from How the Flag Became Old Glory by Scott, Emma Look, Mrs. - Attraction and remorse both seemed to be blotted out, engulfed in the flood of the day's new thoughts.
— from Jean-Christophe, Volume I by Romain Rolland - He advanced with anxiety, but with calmness, seeing nothing, knowing nothing, buried in chance, that is to say, engulfed in providence.
— from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo
