engouffrer

French

Etymology

Derived from en- +‎ gouffre +‎ -er.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɑ̃.ɡu.fʁe/

• Audio

  (file)

Verb

engouffrer

1. (transitive) to engulf, swallow up
   • 1873, Jules Verne, chapter 30, in Le Tour du monde en quatre-vingts jours [Around the World in Eighty Days], Paris: J. Hetzel et Compagnie:

     Des pelletées de charbon et de bois furent engouffrées dans le foyer de sa chaudière, le feu se ranima, la pression monta de nouveau, et, vers deux heures après midi, la machine revenait en arrière vers la station de Kearney.

     Shovelsfull of coal and wood were engulfed in the hearth of the boiler, the fire revived, pressure increased anew, and, at about two o'clock in the afternoon, the machine returned, backwards, to Fort Kearney.

2. (transitive) to gobble up; to eat up
3. (takes a reflexive pronoun) to rush, dive into

   Synonym: précipiter

   • 1918, Marcel Proust, À l’ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs [In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower] (À la recherche du temps perdu)‎^[1]:

     Et tous les quatre qui trouvaient que le phénomène international du Palace, implanté à Balbec, y avait fait fleurir le luxe plus que la bonne cuisine, s’engouffraient dans une voiture, […]

     And then all four, because they found that the international phenomenon of the 'Palace,' planted on Balbec soil, had blossomed there in material splendour rather than in food that was fit to eat, bundled into a carriage […]

Conjugation

Conjugation of engouffrer (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	engouffrer
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	engouffrant /ɑ̃.ɡu.fʁɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		engouffré /ɑ̃.ɡu.fʁe/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	engouffre /ɑ̃.ɡufʁ/	engouffres /ɑ̃.ɡufʁ/	engouffre /ɑ̃.ɡufʁ/	engouffrons /ɑ̃.ɡu.fʁɔ̃/	engouffrez /ɑ̃.ɡu.fʁe/	engouffrent /ɑ̃.ɡufʁ/
	imperfect	engouffrais /ɑ̃.ɡu.fʁɛ/	engouffrais /ɑ̃.ɡu.fʁɛ/	engouffrait /ɑ̃.ɡu.fʁɛ/	engouffrions /ɑ̃.ɡu.fʁi.jɔ̃/	engouffriez /ɑ̃.ɡu.fʁi.je/	engouffraient /ɑ̃.ɡu.fʁɛ/
	past historic2	engouffrai /ɑ̃.ɡu.fʁe/	engouffras /ɑ̃.ɡu.fʁa/	engouffra /ɑ̃.ɡu.fʁa/	engouffrâmes /ɑ̃.ɡu.fʁam/	engouffrâtes /ɑ̃.ɡu.fʁat/	engouffrèrent /ɑ̃.ɡu.fʁɛʁ/
	future	engouffrerai /ɑ̃.ɡu.fʁə.ʁe/	engouffreras /ɑ̃.ɡu.fʁə.ʁa/	engouffrera /ɑ̃.ɡu.fʁə.ʁa/	engouffrerons /ɑ̃.ɡu.fʁə.ʁɔ̃/	engouffrerez /ɑ̃.ɡu.fʁə.ʁe/	engouffreront /ɑ̃.ɡu.fʁə.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	engouffrerais /ɑ̃.ɡu.fʁə.ʁɛ/	engouffrerais /ɑ̃.ɡu.fʁə.ʁɛ/	engouffrerait /ɑ̃.ɡu.fʁə.ʁɛ/	engouffrerions /ɑ̃.ɡu.fʁə.ʁjɔ̃/	engouffreriez /ɑ̃.ɡu.fʁə.ʁje/	engouffreraient /ɑ̃.ɡu.fʁə.ʁɛ/
(compound tenses)	present perfect	present indicative of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect	imperfect indicative of avoir + past participle
	past anterior2	past historic of avoir + past participle
	future perfect	future of avoir + past participle
	conditional perfect	conditional of avoir + past participle
subjunctive		que je (j’)	que tu	qu’il, qu’elle	que nous	que vous	qu’ils, qu’elles
(simple tenses)	present	engouffre /ɑ̃.ɡufʁ/	engouffres /ɑ̃.ɡufʁ/	engouffre /ɑ̃.ɡufʁ/	engouffrions /ɑ̃.ɡu.fʁi.jɔ̃/	engouffriez /ɑ̃.ɡu.fʁi.je/	engouffrent /ɑ̃.ɡufʁ/
	imperfect2	engouffrasse /ɑ̃.ɡu.fʁas/	engouffrasses /ɑ̃.ɡu.fʁas/	engouffrât /ɑ̃.ɡu.fʁa/	engouffrassions /ɑ̃.ɡu.fʁa.sjɔ̃/	engouffrassiez /ɑ̃.ɡu.fʁa.sje/	engouffrassent /ɑ̃.ɡu.fʁas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	engouffre /ɑ̃.ɡufʁ/	—	engouffrons /ɑ̃.ɡu.fʁɔ̃/	engouffrez /ɑ̃.ɡu.fʁe/	—
compound		—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—
1 The French gerund is usable only with the preposition en.
2 In less formal writing or speech, these tenses may be found to have been replaced in the following way: past historic → present perfect past anterior → pluperfect imperfect subjunctive → present subjunctive pluperfect subjunctive → past subjunctive (Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81).

Further reading

• “engouffrer”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.