Dictionary

overswell en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (Southern-England) audio
• /ˈoʊvɚˌswɛl/ (General-American)
• /ˈəʊvəswɛl/ (Received-Pronunciation)

Etymology

From over- + swell.

Meanings

1. An excessive or sudden increase or flood (of something).
   • [The trial] drew a crowd […] that almost stormed the City Hall corridors. Three policement were needed to keep back the overswell. 1978, Constance Backhouse, Leah Cohen, chapter 3, in The Secret Oppression: Sexual Harassment of Working Women, Toronto: Macmillan of Canada, page 54:
   • I could feel that my overswell of emotions had communicated itself to him. 1997, David Njoku, Eve, Lagos: True Tales Publication, page 53:
   • 1983, Kenneth A. McClane, “From a Silent Center” in A Tree Beyond Telling, San Francisco: Black Scholar Press, p. 31, when no Jihad / opens the conceived / to distention, the reedy creek / to overswells / of mudwallow:

Forms

Synonyms

surge

overswell en · VERB

Pronunciation

• /əʊvəˈswɛl/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• (Southern-England) audio
• /ˌoʊvɚˈswɛl/ (General-American)

Etymology

From over- + swell.

Meanings

1. (ambitransitive) To swell or rise above (something, especially the rim of a container, the sides of something hollow, etc.).
   • 1768, Ignatius Sancho, letter to Mr. M—, in Letters of the Late Ignatius Sancho, London: J. Nichols, 3rd edition, 1784, p. 13, […] the heart gratefully throbbing—overswelled with thankful sensations
   • Come, you have made mee resolute and bould, And now receive your lapps ore-swell’d with gold. 1636, Thomas Heywood, Loves Maistresse, London: John Crowch, act I, scene 1:
   • When mushrooms they were fairy bowers, Their marble pillars over-swelling, 1835, John Clare, “Decay”, in The Rural Muse, London: Whittaker, page 60:
   • In some years the river overswells its banks, causing widespread flooding.
   • […] then Badoglio and his staff [went by] looking rather big for their cars, like the necks of bookmakers overswelling their collars; 1942, G. L. Steer, chapter 2, in Sealed and Delivered,, London: Hodder and Stoughton, page 14:
   • Fill, Lucius, till the wine o’erswell the cup; 1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]:
   • Let floods o’erswell, and fiends for food howl on! 1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:
2. (ambitransitive) To cause (something) to be too swollen or large; to become too swollen or large.
   • A frequent difficulty in the manufacture of Emmental cheese in America, and perhaps elsewhere, is a tendency for the cheese to overswell. 1923, “Proceedings of the World’s Dairy Congress”, in Session, volume 1, 7, p. 289:
   • [The monster’s] ungrateful progeny rush to gorge on her blood, but it overswells their bellies and they literally burst to death. 1998, Pamela Norris, chapter 10, in Eve: A Biography, New York: New York University Press, page 322:
   • […] the rents of lands still grew higher upon every lease that expired, till they have arrived at the present exorbitance; when the frog, overswelling himself, burst at last. 1729, Jonathan Swift, “Maxims Controlled in Ireland”, in The Works of Dr. Jonathan Swift, volume 15, London: W. Johnston, published 1765, page 243:
   • 1885, Richard Burton, The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, The Burton Club, Volume 1, Translator’s Foreward, p. xvi, My annotations avoid only one subject, parallels of European folk-lore and fabliaux which, however interesting, would overswell the bulk of a book whose speciality is anthropology.

Forms

Relateds

overswollen

Synonyms

spill over · overflow