Standard Lemma guide

overswell

noun · verb · 3 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • Received-Pronunciation: /ˈəʊvəswɛl/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • General-American: /ˈoʊvɚˌswɛl/
  • Received-Pronunciation: /əʊvəˈswɛl/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • General-American: /ˌoʊvɚˈswɛl/
  • rhymes with -ɛl

1

noun

Meaning 1

An excessive or sudden increase or flood (of something).

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Examples

  • 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:

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: surge

Antonyms: none provided

2

verb

Meaning 2

To swell or rise above (something, especially the rim of a container, the sides of something hollow, etc.).

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: ambitransitive

Examples

  • In some years the river overswells its banks, causing widespread flooding.
  • 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

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: overflow, spill over

Antonyms: none provided

3

verb

Meaning 3

To cause (something) to be too swollen or large; to become too swollen or large.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: ambitransitive

Examples

  • 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.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

From over- + swell.