Meaning

(ambitransitive) To swell or rise above (something, especially the rim of a container, the sides of something hollow, etc.)..

Definitions by Sense

1. (ambitransitive) To swell or rise above (something, especially the rim of a container, the sides of something hollow, etc.).
2. (ambitransitive) To cause (something) to be too swollen or large; to become too swollen or large.
3. An excessive or sudden increase or flood (of something).

Example Sentences

In some years the river overswells its banks, causing widespread flooding.

1768, Ignatius Sancho, letter to Mr. M—, in Letters of the Late Ignatius Sancho, London: J. Nichols, 3rd edition, 1784, p. 13, […] the heart gratefully throbbing—overswelled with thankful sensations

Let floods o’erswell, and fiends for food howl on!

Fill, Lucius, till the wine o’erswell the cup;

Come, you have made mee resolute and bould, And now receive your lapps ore-swell’d with gold.

When mushrooms they were fairy bowers, Their marble pillars over-swelling,

[…] then Badoglio and his staff [went by] looking rather big for their cars, like the necks of bookmakers overswelling their collars;

1885, Richard Burton, The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, The Burton Club, Volume 1, Translator’s Foreward, p. xvi, My annotations avoid only one subject, parallels of European folk-lore and fabliaux which, however interesting, would overswell the bulk of a book whose speciality is anthropology.

Word Forms

• overswells
• overswelling
• overswelled
• o’erswell
• over-swell

Synonyms for overswell

Related Words

When Should You Use Overswell?

Use overswell when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.

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