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Pronunciation varies by accent · verb
(intransitive) To grow beyond one's boundaries or containment, or beyond the proper size..
The utmost they aimed at doing was thoroughly to clear the old Church of all the corruptions and superstitions which had disfigured it in the course of ages, and which, like the flaunting ivy overgrowing some ancient building, not only concealed the Church's fair proportions, but shut out the light of heaven from its windows, and more or less dislocated its structure.
One wall advertised a dense muddle of ivy overgrowing its prefab brick, while a miniature moat with a jerry-built bridge arcing over it snaked around one of the "halls" (as real universities dub their constituent structures).
If there is ivy overgrowing things, then we shall clean it up.
Use overgrow when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.
Overgrow means (intransitive) To grow beyond one's boundaries or containment, or beyond the proper size..
Common synonyms include outgrow, grow over.
The opposite depends on the specific sense.
The utmost they aimed at doing was thoroughly to clear the old Church of all the corruptions and superstitions which had disfigured it in the course of ages, and which, like the flaunting ivy overgrowing some ancient building, not only concealed the Church's fair proportions, but shut out the light of heaven from its windows, and more or less dislocated its structure.
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