whelm vs devastate

whelm and devastate both are verbs.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
whelm	No	No	Yes	No
devastate	No	No	Yes	No

As verbs, devastate is a hyponym of whelm; that is, devastate is a word with a more specific, narrower meaning than whelm:

Other hyponyms of whelm include clutch, get hold of, seize, kill, benight, knock out, stagger, lock.

whelm (verb)	devastate (verb)
overcome, as with emotions or perceptual stimuli	cause extensive destruction or ruin utterly
to neither fail to meet nor exceed expectation	overwhelm or overpower