overwalk

English

Etymology

From over- +‎ walk.

Noun

overwalk (plural overwalks)

1. A pedestrian bridge or elevated walkway that allows one to walk over a road, stream, or other obstacle, or between the upper stories of buildings.
   • 1983, The ALA Yearbook, volume 8, page 76:

     Ground was broken for a new Central Library Building in Birmingham, Alabama, to cost $8,300,000, including an overwalk connection to the existing building across the street.

   • 1993, United States. Congress. House. Committee on Public Works and Transportation. Subcommittee on Economic Development, Investing in America's Infrastructure, page 269:

     I know in our own State, for example, our State transportation board addressed a pedestrian overwalk at one of our major intersections last week, in the hopes that there would be additional funding available and might be limited if it were in that category, but if it were in discretionary funding, obviously, something we could address.

   • 1997, Orville Winston Hampton, Rock Quarries and the Manufacture, Trade, and Uses of Stone Tools and Symbolic Stones in the Central Highlands of Irian Jaya, Indonesia, page 116:

     A walking stick is in her right hand, and a second, which the woman conveniently keeps next to the fence overwalk, is seen just to the right.

   • 2012, Neil Lynn Wise, To Rouse Leviathan:

     At the next level, he bolted down another hallway and through an arch onto an overwalk connecting with the domed edifice.

   • 2019, Jerri O'Powell, Andrean, Deslar & Paper Gods:

     On the ground level with us were four sets of tracks with overwalks and underwalks between them. Some of the overwalks led to a set of 4 overhead hanging train lines that curved into and out of the station.

2. An elevated walkway that provides passage above the main area of a facility; a catwalk.
   • 1967, New York (State). Dept. of Labor, The Industrial Bulletin of the Department of Labor, page 9:

     Note safety handrails on overwalk across conveyor system.

   • 1977, August E. Komendant, Contemporary Concrete Structures, page 532:

     The stair-elevator tower accommodates also vertical services, is connected directly with box clusters or overwalks, and serves as the stabilizer of the complex.

   • 2011, Don Pendleton, Grave Mercy:

     There was no way for them to get up into this overwalk, so he was good.

3. A walkway placed slightly above the ground in an ecologically vulnerable location so that pedestrians can walk through the area without causing damage.
   • 1980, Virginia. Marine Resources Commission, Coastal Primary Sand Dune Guidelines, page 11:

     Pedestrian traffic over the dune can cause the loss of vegetation anchoring the dune unless a dune overwalk, following the natural contour of the dune, is provided.

   • 1994, Alternative Technologies in Beach Preservation, page 386:

     Total cost included indirect expenses, as well as all materials associated with tube installation and construction of the timber pedestrian overwalk.

   • 1996, Orrin H. Pilkey, Katharine L. Dixon, The Corps and the Shore, page 113:

     In an effort to protect the new dune, the city informed oceanfront residents that they would have to construct dune overwalks to reach the beach in front of their house, alleging that it was a state requirement (which state officials flatly deny).

   • 2005, Ken Gunther, Lilith: A Biography, page 425:

     A woodchip trail (which tied the whole community) led into a line of conifers and down a winding slope beside a wood overwalk to oceanside.

Verb

overwalk (third-person singular simple present overwalks, present participle overwalking, simple past and past participle overwalked)

1. To walk over or upon.
   • 1857, James Smart Linwood, The Dream of Freedom and Other Poems, page 47:

     We overwalk the bounds of time, / Yet ne'er forget our younger days, / For in the heart some soft sweet chime / Of feeling's music mutely plays; […]

   • 1914, Henry James, Notes of a Son and Brother:

     The scenery we cherished — by which I really mean, I fear, but four or five of us — has now been grossly and utterly sacrificed; in the sense that its range was all for the pedestrian measure, that to overwalk it was to love it and to overwalk it, and that no such relation with it as either of these appears possible or thinkable to-day.

   • 2010, Alan Tennant, On The Wing: To the Edge of the Earth with a Peregrine Falcon:

     Yellow-throated devil's claw, prairie gentian, and ground cherry—all first described here by Lieutenant William Albert of Kearney's Mexican War Army—had burst up by the roadside, long stitcheries of snow fence seamed the pastures, and where cattle had overwalked their turf, spurge and knapweed took the place of bluestem and wheatgrass.

   • 2011, Robert Smith, Stacey Smith, Braaaiiinnnsss!: From Academics to Zombies:

     When zombies actually begin to appear and quickly overrun (or, rather, slowly overwalk) Shaun's city, we realize that they are just as introverted and hangry (hungry/angry) as they are purported to be—and definitely seem to go out of their way to find, eat and kill everyone.

2. To walk past, especially without noticing.
   • 1906, The Climbers’ Club Journal, volume 9, page 62:

     It turned out that we had overwalked the bounds vaguely prescribed by our permit, and according to his statements must have scared a hundred birds, though we had seen never a one.

   • 1906, Robert Jameson Mackenzie, Almond of Loretto, page 80:

     It might be between strokes at golf , when the Head and his partner had overwalked their ball by forty yards, and their opponents were calling on them to return; or it might be in the intervals of a cricket-match, when the game had ceased to demand our undivided attention; or again, as we trotted with him down the Hundred from the queer old court by the vinery; or under the ruined wall of Falside Casle, as we sheltered for a moment from the storm.

   • 1915 December, “Does Your Store "Stand Out?"”, in Fabrics, Fancy Goods and Notions, volume 49, page 68:

     It probably happens that we know its position only in a general way, say "between the post office and the National Bank." We have been there many and many a time, but still we overwalk it time and again, and frequently overwalk it coming back.

3. To walk excessively; to walk too far or too quickly.
   • 1844, Edwin Sidney, The Life of the Rev. Rowland Hill, page 173:

     If it please our adorable Master that I come, I will be sure not to overwalk myself , and take the best care I can not to exceed either in length, or in exertion of voice.

   • 1862, [William] Wilkie Collins, chapter II, in No Name. […], volume II, London: Sampson Low, Son, & Co., […], →OCLC, 4th (Aldborough, Suffolk), pages 176–177:

     "I won't over-walk myself," he said, cheerfully. "If the coach doesn't overtake me on the road, I can wait for it where I stop to breakfast. Dry your eyes, my dear; and give me a kiss."

   • 1878 January–December, Thomas Hardy, The Return of the Native […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], published 1878, →OCLC:

     "I used to tell her not to overwalk herself this weather," said Clym, with distress.

   • 1908, Luther Halsey Gulick, Mind and Work, page 50:

     A day comes when you are excited, or unduly ambitious and, without perceiving it at the time, you overwalk yourself .

   • 1918 October, Elizaveth Kellam, “Method on the High Road”, in The Vassar Miscellany Monthly, volume 4, number 1, page 19:

     He who will be systematic in camping is like Robert Louis Stevenson's friend who overwalks himself in his effort to make record time.

   • 2014, Megan Searfoss, See Mom Run, page 75:

     On fitness walk workout days, you should move at a conversation pace, paying attention not to overwalk or become out of breath.

4. To take on too many walks, or cause to walk too far or too quickly.
   • 1888, Minutes of Proceedings [of The] Royal Artillery Institution, page 406:

     Moreover by placing a slight load on the men the present tendency of the men to overwalk the laden mules on level ground or down hill slopes, would be reduced.

   • 2018, David Anderson, The Complete Guide to Maltipoos:

     Can I overwalk my Maltipoo?

   • 2022, Julia Robertson, How to Build a Puppy: Into a Healthy Adult Dog, page 3-48:

     If they are overwalked, these processes could develop the wrong muscle patterning, which does not create a puppy that is strong and stable for the inside.

5. To overtake while walking; to walk faster than
   • 1754, Frank Hammond, The History and Adventures of Frank Hammond, page 82:

     I accosted him with all the Distance and Regard that I thought was due to his Character; and, indeed, his Deportment and Reply was decent and genteel, he was bound for Northampton as well as myself, he told me, and, provided I would not overwalk him, would gladly embrace the Benefit of my Company.

   • 1909, William James Lloyd Wharton, Sir Arthur Mostyn Field, Hydrographical Surveying, page 69:

     In walking forward, take care that the hinder man does not overwalk the former, or the chain will have a bight dragging on the ground, links will catch in something and get bent, and the error of the chain will be very different when retested to what it was before landing.

6. To walk on too much.
   • 2010, Gillian Souter, Slow Journeys: The Pleasures of Travelling by Foot, page 65:

     Spain has the overwalked Camino plus more exciting walking in its mountain ranges, including the Pyrenees, the limestone Picos de Europa and the Sierra Nevada near Grenada, where Moorish influences are evident in the whitewashed villages.

Anagrams

• walk over, walk-over, walkover