overbear
English
Etymology
From Middle English overberen; equivalent to over- + bear.
Pronunciation
- (UK) IPA(key): /əʊvəˈbɛː/
Verb
overbear (third-person singular simple present overbears, present participle overbearing, simple past overbore, past participle overborne)
- (obsolete, transitive) To carry over. [10th–14th c.]
- (transitive) To push through by physical weight or strength; to overwhelm, overcome. [from 16th c.]
- 1951, Geoffrey Chaucer; Nevill Coghill, transl., 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.
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- (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 960102938:
- It often fals, in course of common life, / That right long time is overborne of wrong […].
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- (intransitive) To produce an overabundance of fruit. [from 18th c.]
Derived terms
- overbearing