overpass
English
![](Images/wiktionary/2015_Wiadukt_w_Lewinie_K%C5%82odzkim_(03).jpg.webp)
A 1905 overpass over a road in Lewin Kłodzki, Poland
Etymology
over- + pass
Pronunciation
- (noun) IPA(key): /ˈəʊvə(ɹ)pæs/, /ˈəʊvə(ɹ)pɑːs/
- (verb) IPA(key): /əʊvə(ɹ)ˈpæs/, /əʊvə(ɹ)ˈpɑːs/
Noun
overpass (plural overpasses) (chiefly US, Canada, Philippines)
- A section of a road or path that crosses over an obstacle, especially another road, railway, etc.
- The homeless man had built a little shelter, complete with cook-stove, beneath a concrete overpass.
- 2018 February, Robert Draper, “They are Watching You—and Everything Else on the Planet: Technology and Our Increasing Demand for Security have Put Us All under Surveillance. Is Privacy Becoming just a Memory?”, in National Geographic, Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society, ISSN 0027-9358, OCLC 1049714034, archived from the original on 14 June 2018:
- By visible evidence, this Saturday morning is a comparatively placid one. Earlier in the week a young man had died after being stabbed in a flat, and from the overpass at Archway Road, darkly referred to as “suicide bridge,” another man had jumped to his death.
Synonyms
- flyover (UK)
Antonyms
- underpass (US, UK), subway (UK)
Translations
A section of a road or path that crosses over an obstacle, especially another road, railway, etc
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See also
- underpass
- overbridge
Verb
overpass (third-person singular simple present overpasses, present participle overpassing, simple past and past participle overpassed)
- To pass above something, as when flying or moving on a higher road.
- Gillian watched the overpassing shoppers on the second floor of the mall, as she relaxed in the bench on the ground floor.
- (transitive) To exceed, overstep, or transcend a limit, threshold, or goal.
- Marshall was really overpassing his authority when he ordered the security guards to fire their tasers at the trespassers.
- The precocious student had really overpassed her peers, and was reading books written for children several years older.
- 1877, Aeschylus, Robert Browning, transl., The Agamemnon of Æschylus, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], OCLC 749890141, page 31:
- Thou who didst fling on Troia's every tower / The o'er-roofing snare, that neither great thing might, / Nor any of the young ones, overpass / Captivity's great sweep-net— […]
- (transitive) To disregard, skip, or miss something.
- “Don’t overpass those cheeses; they’re really quite excellent!” gushed Terry, pointing to the buffet table.
- 1671, John Milton, “(please specify the page)”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J. M[acock] for John Starkey […], OCLC 228732398, lines 197–198:
- A youth, how all the beauties of the East / He slightly viewed and slightly overpassed.
Synonyms
- (to pass above): pass over, transpass
- (to exceed a limit): overgo, surpass, transgress; see also Thesaurus:transcend
- (to disregard): misregard, miss, overlook, take no notice of; see also Thesaurus:ignore or Thesaurus:fail to notice
Anagrams
- Passover, pass over, passover