整個蓋住、看不見了
這是字面的一格，核心畫面在這裡是真的在發生：火、水、煙、霧蓋過一個東西。
verb · B2
If fire, water, smoke or something like it engulfs a thing, it covers the whole of it, so that the thing cannot be seen any more.
吞沒；整個覆蓋
核心畫面
Picture something enormous rising and closing over something small, until the small thing cannot be seen at all. A wave over a boat, smoke over a stairway, cloud over a valley. Three things are always true: what arrives is far bigger, it covers everything and not just a side, and what is covered goes out of sight. Change the big thing from water to fear, or to a crisis, and the rest of the picture stays exactly the same.
engulf 可以想成一個很大的東西升起來，然後在一個小東西上方合起來。浪蓋過小船。煙蓋滿樓梯間。雲蓋住整座山谷。有…更多收起
engulf 可以想成一個很大的東西升起來，然後在一個小東西上方合起來。浪蓋過小船。煙蓋滿樓梯間。雲蓋住整座山谷。有三件事一直沒變：蓋過來的東西大得多；蓋的是全部，不是一邊；被蓋住的就看不見了。把那個「大東西」從水換成恐懼，或換成一場風暴般的事件，其餘的畫面完全一樣。From the word’s history
Wiktionary gives the word as en- + gulf. A gulf is a deep opening — the sea running into the land, or simply a great hollow. The prefix puts something into it. That is close to the picture the modern word still uses: something big opens, and what falls inside disappears.
Wiktionary 記錄這個字來自 en-（進入）加 gulf（海灣、深淵）。gulf 是一個又大又深的開口。en- 把東西放進去。這條線索和它今天的用法很接近：大的東西張開，進去的就不見了。所以無論主詞是水、是情緒還是一場危機，畫面都是同一個。
Wiktionary entry for engulf, kaikki extract source_ref kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:798351580 — etymology_text: From en- + gulf.
Two branches
看不見的東西蓋過來
這一支把浪換成了摸不到的東西：情緒，或一整件事。動作沒變，只是蓋過來的東西沒有形狀。
verb · B2
If a strong unpleasant feeling engulfs you, it fills the whole of you, so that for a while there is room for nothing else.
淹沒（強烈情緒）