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OVER AND OVER AGAIN
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I. (adverb)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Repeatedly
Example:
the unknown word turned up over and over again in the text
Synonyms:
again and again; over and over; over and over again; time and again; time and time again
Classified under:
Context examples:
She would not let Jane say, 'No;' for when Jane first heard of it, (it was the day before yesterday, the very morning we were at Donwell,) when Jane first heard of it, she was quite decided against accepting the offer, and for the reasons you mention; exactly as you say, she had made up her mind to close with nothing till Colonel Campbell's return, and nothing should induce her to enter into any engagement at present—and so she told Mrs. Elton over and over again—and I am sure I had no more idea that she would change her mind!—but that good Mrs. Elton, whose judgment never fails her, saw farther than I did.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
Dorothy picked them up and had the Winkies carry them back to the castle, where they were stuffed with nice, clean straw; and behold! here was the Scarecrow, as good as ever, thanking them over and over again for saving him.
(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)
And after thinking it all over and over again, he said, it seemed to him as if, now he had no fortune, and no nothing at all, it would be quite unkind to keep her on to the engagement, because it must be for her loss, for he had nothing but two thousand pounds, and no hope of any thing else; and if he was to go into orders, as he had some thoughts, he could get nothing but a curacy, and how was they to live upon that?
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
And she would neither believe her own watch, nor her brother's, nor the servant's; she would believe no assurance of it founded on reason or reality, till Morland produced his watch, and ascertained the fact; to have doubted a moment longer then would have been equally inconceivable, incredible, and impossible; and she could only protest, over and over again, that no two hours and a half had ever gone off so swiftly before, as Catherine was called on to confirm; Catherine could not tell a falsehood even to please Isabella; but the latter was spared the misery of her friend's dissenting voice, by not waiting for her answer.
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
I read these words over and over again: I felt that an explanation belonged to them, and was unable fully to penetrate their import.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
Still matters were patched up here, and made good there, over and over again; and altogether lasted, I am sure, for a longer time than anybody could have expected.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
And grip and thrill they did, till I fell asleep, murmuring them to myself over and over again.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
An anxiety disorder in which a person has intrusive ideas, thoughts, or images that occur repeatedly, and in which he or she feels driven to perform certain behaviors over and over again.
(Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, NCI Dictionary)
So well as I can remember, here it is:—I have studied, over and over again since they came into my hands, all the papers relating to this monster; and the more I have studied, the greater seems the necessity to utterly stamp him out.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
Had both the children been there, the affair might have been determined too easily by measuring them at once; but as Harry only was present, it was all conjectural assertion on both sides; and every body had a right to be equally positive in their opinion, and to repeat it over and over again as often as they liked.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
