overbear

English

Etymology

From Middle English overberen; equivalent to over- +‎ bear.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /əʊvəˈbɛː/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Verb

overbear (third-person singular simple present overbears, present participle overbearing, simple past overbore, past participle overborne)

1. (obsolete, transitive) To carry over. [10th–14th c.]
2. (transitive) To push through by physical weight or strength; to overwhelm, overcome. [from 16th c.]
   • 1951, Geoffrey Chaucer, translated by Nevill Coghill, The Canterbury Tales: Translated into Modern English (Penguin Classics), Penguin Books, published 1977, page 287:

     I attacked first and they were overborne, / Glad to apologize and even suing / Pardon for what they'd never thought of doing.

3. (transitive) To prevail over; to dominate, overpower; to oppress. [from 16th c.]
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book V, Canto XI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     It often fals, in course of common life, / That right long time is overborne of wrong […].

4. (intransitive) To produce an overabundance of fruit. [from 18th c.]

Derived terms

• overbearing