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Engulf vs Immerse - What's the difference?

engulf | immerse |

In transitive terms the difference between engulf and immerse

is that engulf is to surround; to cover while immerse is to involve deeply.

As an adjective immerse is

immersed; buried; sunk.

engulf

English

Verb

(en verb)
  • To overwhelm.
    • Desperation engulfed her after her daughter's death.
  • * 2013 June 18, , " Protests Widen as Brazilians Chide Leaders," New York Times (retrieved 21 June 2013):
    • Shaken by the biggest challenge to their authority in years, Brazil’s leaders made conciliatory gestures on Tuesday to try to defuse the protests engulfing the nation’s cities.
  • To surround; to cover.
    • Only Noah and his family survived when the Flood engulfed earth.

    immerse

    English

    Verb

    (immers)
  • To put under the surface of a liquid; to dunk.
    • Archimedes determined the volume of objects by immersing them in water.
  • To involve deeply
    • The sculptor immersed himself in anatomic studies.
  • (mathematics)
  • * 2002 , Kari Jormakka, Flying Dutchmen: Motion in Architecture (page 40)
    • Thus, in mathematical terms a Klein bottle cannot be "embedded" but only "immersed " in three dimensions as an embedding has no self-intersections but an immersion may have them.

    Synonyms

    * submerge

    Derived terms

    * immersion * immersive

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • (obsolete) Immersed; buried; sunk.
  • * Francis Bacon
    • After a long enquiry of things immerse in matter, I interpose some object which is immateriate, or less materiate; such as this of sounds.
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