Definition of whelms:
(v) :
(transitive, archaic) To bury, to cover; to engulf, to submerge.
(v) :
(intransitive, archaic) To overcome with emotion; to overwhelm.
(n) :
(poetic, also figuratively) A surge of water.
(n) :
A wooden drainpipe, a hollowed out tree trunk, turned with the cavity downwards to form an arched watercourse.
(v) :
(transitive, obsolete) To throw (something) over a thing so as to cover it.
(v) :
(transitive, obsolete) To ruin or destroy.