Library / English Dictionary

OVERFLOW

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

Irregular inflected form: overflown   

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A large flow

Synonyms:

flood; outpouring; overflow

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("overflow" is a kind of...):

flow; stream (the act of flowing or streaming; continuous progression)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "overflow"):

effusion (flow under pressure)

Derivation:

overflow (flow or run over (a limit or brim))

Sense 2

Meaning:

The occurrence of surplus liquid (as water) exceeding the limit or capacity

Synonyms:

overflow; overspill; runoff

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Hypernyms ("overflow" is a kind of...):

flow; flowing (the motion characteristic of fluids (liquids or gases))

Derivation:

overflow (flow or run over (a limit or brim))

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Overflow with a certain feeling

Example:

My boss was bubbling over with anger

Synonyms:

bubble over; overflow; spill over

Classified under:

Verbs of feeling

Hypernyms (to "overflow" is one way to...):

boil; seethe (be in an agitated emotional state)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Sense 2

Meaning:

Flow or run over (a limit or brim)

Synonyms:

brim over; overflow; overrun; run over; well over

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Hypernyms (to "overflow" is one way to...):

run out; spill (flow, run or fall out and become lost)

"Overflow" entails doing...:

course; feed; flow; run (move along, of liquids)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "overflow"):

geyser (to overflow like a geyser)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Derivation:

overflow (a large flow)

overflow (the occurrence of surplus liquid (as water) exceeding the limit or capacity)

Credits

 Context examples: 

That bitter hour cannot be described: in truth, "the waters came into my soul; I sank in deep mire: I felt no standing; I came into deep waters; the floods overflowed me."

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Warmed by the sight of such a friend to her son, and regulated by the wish of appearing to advantage before him, she was overflowing with gratitude—artless, maternal gratitude—which could not be unpleasing.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Curiosity scientists interpret rocks enriched in mineral salts discovered by the rover as evidence of shallow briny ponds that went through episodes of overflow and drying.

(NASA's Curiosity Rover Finds an Ancient Oasis on Mars, NASA)

From these basins the water is continually exhaled by the sun in the daytime, which effectually prevents their overflowing.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

Flooding can also happen when a river or stream overflows its bank, when a levee is breached, or when a dam breaks.

(Floods, Federal Emergency Management Agency)

The study’s projections say warming-induced glacial melts will spike dangerously, increasing river flows, between 2050 and 2060, exacerbating the risk of high-altitude glacial lakes overflowing and, consequently, flooding communities.

(Bulk of Himalayan glaciers could vanish by 2100, SciDev.Net)

It was a very large chamber, lined with innumerable volumes, which had overflowed from the shelves and lay in piles in the corners, or were stacked all round at the base of the cases.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Umble as I am, he wiped his hands harder, and looked at them and at the fire by turns, umble as my mother is, and lowly as our poor but honest roof has ever been, the image of Miss Agnes (I don't mind trusting you with my secret, Master Copperfield, for I have always overflowed towards you since the first moment I had the pleasure of beholding you in a pony-shay) has been in my breast for years.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

However, I must say, that Robert Martin's heart seemed for him, and to me, very overflowing; and that he did mention, without its being much to the purpose, that on quitting their box at Astley's, my brother took charge of Mrs. John Knightley and little John, and he followed with Miss Smith and Henry; and that at one time they were in such a crowd, as to make Miss Smith rather uneasy.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Yet my heart overflowed with kindness and the love of virtue.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)