Dictionary

overawe en · VERB

Pronunciation

• /oʊvɚˈɒ/ (Canada, dialectal) of the US
• /əʊvəˈɹɔː/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• (Southern-England) audio
• /əʉvəˈɹoː/ (Australia)
• /oʊvɚˈɑ/ (US, cot-caught-merger, dialectal) of Canada
• /ɐʉvəˈɹoː/ (New-Zealand)
• /ɐʉvəˈɹoː/ (Australia)
• /oʊvɚˈɔ/ (General-American)

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *úp Proto-Indo-European *-er Proto-Indo-European *upér Proto-Germanic *uber Old English ofer- Middle English over- English over- French auvebor. English awe English overawe From over- + awe.

Meanings

1. (transitive) To restrain, subdue, or control by awe; to cow.
   • His free and easy carriage evinced, that though acknowledging my assumptions, he was no way overawed by them; treating me as familiarly, indeed, as if I were a mere mortal, one of the abject generation of mushrooms. 1849, Herman Melville, “ch. 57”, in Mardi: and A Voyage Thither, volume I:
   • None doe you like, but an effeminate Prince, Whom like a Schoole-boy you may ouer-awe. 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:
   • He kept the biggest estates, and where he lacked troops to overawe the natives he evicted the natives and made a game reserve. 2000, Alasdair Gray, The Book of Prefaces, Bloomsbury, published 2002, page 61:

Forms

Antonyms

underwhelm

Deriveds

overawer

Translations (4)

bg сплашвам (to restrain, subdue, or control by awe; to cow) · fi pelotella (to restrain, subdue, or control by awe; to cow) · ru внушать благоговейный страх (to restrain, subdue, or control by awe; to cow) · bg всявам страх (to restrain, subdue, or control by awe; to cow)