Sc. and dial. Forms: 6, 9 quhemle, quhomle, 7–9 whemmel, 8–9 whomel, whemble, 9 w(h)emmle, whammle, wham(b)le, whommle, whum(m)el, etc. (see Eng. Dial. Dict.). [Metathetic form of WHELM v.
1. trans. To turn upside down; to overturn, capsize; to drink off (liquor) to the bottom; also transf. and fig. to upset, throw into confusion.
1536. Bellenden, Cron., Proheme ii. (1541), F iv. And schyll Triton with his wyndy horne Ouir quhemlit all the flowand occean.
1684. [Meriton], Yorksh. Dial., 47. I whemmeld Dubler owr’th Meat, To keep it seaf and warm for you to Eat.
1715. Ramsay, Christ’s Kirk Gr., II. xix. On whomelt tubs lay twa lang dails. Ibid. (1721), Prospect of Plenty, 196. Healthfou hearts shall own their honest flame, With reaming quaff, and whomelt to her name.
1816. Scott, Antiq., xl. I think I see the coble whombled keel up. Ibid., xli. He took the curbstane, and he’s whomled her as I wad whomle a toom bicker.
c. 1850. Denham, Tracts (1895), II. 31. Put into a wheelbarrow and whemmeled over upon the muck-midden.
1883. Trans. Amer. Philol. Soc., 55. Whommle, ‘to turn a trough, or any vessel, bottom upwards, so that it will drain well’; used in West Virginia.
b. To cover (something) by turning a vessel, etc., upside down over it.
1790. Grose, Prov. Gloss. (ed. 2), Whemble, to cover with a bowl.
1824. Mactaggart, Gallovid. Encycl., s.v. Whommled, To be whommled beneath a bushel.
1855. [J. D. Burn], Autobiogr. Beggar Boy (1859), 57. I was, like the turkey, whomalled under a tub.
2. To submerge in or as in a flood; to drown.
1567. Satir. Poems Reform., iv. 51. Quhomlit in sorow and plungeit in cair.
1824. Mactaggart, Gallovid. Encycl., s.v. Whommled, ‘To be whommled by a wave,’ to be whelmed in the deep.
3. intr. To tumble over, capsize; also, to move unsteadily, stumble about.
1895. Crockett, Men of Moss-Hags, xxiii. The deil whummelt on his hearthstand! Ibid. (1897), Lads’ Love, iii. When … your hoggs [are] whammelin’ in the black hags by the score!
