inundate
UK/'inʌndeit/US
IELTSTOEFLGREC2
释义
v.
To overwhelm someone with a very large amount of things to deal with
使应接不暇；使不知所措（被大量事物淹没）
v.
To flood an area with water
（用水）淹没，使泛滥
词根拆分
词根派生in-（之上）+ und（波浪，来自 undāre「奔涌」）+ -ate（动词后缀）= 「把波浪打到某物之上」。字面上是河水把浪打上陆地、把它淹没。同一画面也适用于被洪水般的邮件、电话、请求埋没——一下子来得太多。
词根 und 还连着 9 个词使用指南
几乎总用被动、比喻：be inundated with/by 一堆消息、请求或工作。字面的「水淹」义（the river inundated the valley）更书面，日常口语少见。
例句
- 1.
After the news broke, the office was inundated with calls from worried customers.
消息一出，办公室就被忧心忡忡的客户的电话淹没了。
- 2.
Heavy rain inundated the low-lying fields within hours.
几个小时内，暴雨就淹没了那些低洼的田地。
- 3.
We were inundated with applications and couldn't reply to them all.
我们收到的申请多到应接不暇，没法一一回复。