Overwrite

Quick meaning: Overwrite is a verb meaning (transitive, computing) To destroy (older) data by recording new data over it.

Meaning

(transitive, computing) To destroy (older) data by recording new data over it.

More Meanings

1. (transitive) To cover in writing; to write over the top of.
2. (ambitransitive) To write too much.
3. (ambitransitive) To write in an unnecessarily complicated or florid way; to produce purple prose.
4. (computing) The operation of destroying older data by recording new data over it.

Example Sentences

Tab to the number specifying the number of overwrites and enter a number between 1 and 9.

I accidentally saved my unwanted changes and overwrote the version of the document I wanted to keep.

The Times of course has to pay the price of encyclopaedism by being often dreadfully overwritten, with long paragraphs connected by motley conjunctions.

He overwrites constantly, but his detailed and understated one-paragraph description of Monroe's apartment in New York (pp. 216-18) injects high voltage into the de casibus tradition.

Word Forms

• overwrites
• overwriting
• overwrote
• overwritten

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include edit, superimpose, rewriting, rewrite, substitution, substitute.

Related Dictionary Tools