Learn English – What word describes the process of a ship being slowly “swallowed” in the sea

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Trying to find a word which will describe the slow process of the absorption of a ship by the sea. Metaphysical words are also welcome.

Sea water swallowed the ship.

Best Answer

The suggestion by Edwin Ashworth of engulfed gets at it. Synonyms of engulfed include swamped, submerged, submersed, immersed, innundated, consumed, overwhelmed, enveloped, swallowed up...

Online etymologies have this to say about engulfed:

Late 14c., "profound depth," from Old French golf "a gulf, whirlpool," from Italian golfo "a gulf, a bay," from Late Latin colfos, from Greek kolpos "bay, gulf of the sea," earlier "trough between waves, fold of a loose garment," originally "bosom," the common notion being "curved shape."

This is from PIE *kwelp- "to arch, to vault" (compare Old English hwealf, a-hwielfan "to overwhelm"). Latin sinus underwent the same development, being used first for "bosom," later for "gulf" (and in Medieval Latin, "hollow curve or cavity in the body"). The geographic sense "large tract of water extending into the land" (larger than a bay, smaller than a sea, but the distinction is not exact and not always observed) is in English from c. 1400, replacing Old English sæ-earm. Figurative sense of "a wide interval" is from 1550s.

My apologies for wasting an "anwer" when a comment would have been more appropriate but I'm too new to this SE to be able to comment.

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