Dictionary

overlander en · NOUN

Etymology

From overland + -er.

Meanings

1. One who travels overland.
   • Sarah was a nurse from Devon and an “overlander”, one of our group of 20 travelling across Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia in a Mercedes-Benz truck. 1995 October 14, Julia Llewellyn Smith, “The truck of revelations”, in The Times, page 18:
   • The Overland Riders walked their horses after making the turn, there being no need for haste, as no one believed that the lumberjacks would follow, and further, the Overlanders were looking for a suitable camping place for the night. 1921, Josephine Chase, Grace Harlowe's Overland Riders in the Great North Woods:
2. (Australia) A drover who herds large groups of sheep or cattle over long distances.
   • The overlanders are, nearly all, men in the prime of youth, whose occupation it is to convey large herds of stock from market to market, and from colony to colony. 1862 July, “The Explorers of Australia”, in The Edinburgh Review, number 235:
   • The first overlander was Mr. Darcy Uhr, who arrived from Queensland with cattle in 1872. 1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 219:

Forms