Library / English Dictionary

OVERPOWER

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Overcome by superior force

Synonyms:

overmaster; overpower; overwhelm

Classified under:

Verbs of fighting, athletic activities

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

beat; beat out; crush; shell; trounce; vanquish (come out better in a competition, race, or conflict)

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

steamroll; steamroller (overwhelm by using great force)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody

Sentence example:

The fighter managed to overpower his opponent

Sense 2

Meaning:

Overcome, as with emotions or perceptual stimuli

Synonyms:

overcome; overpower; overtake; overwhelm; sweep over; whelm

Classified under:

Verbs of feeling

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

arouse; elicit; enkindle; evoke; fire; kindle; provoke; raise (call forth (emotions, feelings, and responses))

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

devastate (overwhelm or overpower)

clutch; get hold of; seize (affect)

kill (overwhelm with hilarity, pleasure, or admiration)

benight (overtake with darkness or night)

knock out (overwhelm with admiration)

stagger (astound or overwhelm, as with shock)

lock (hold fast (in a certain state))

Sentence frame:

Something ----s somebody

Credits

 Context examples: 

What could be the reason of his overpowering terror?

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

What I am saying, is what I said when you first overpowered me with surprise—you remember how surprised I was? —by proposing for Annie.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

You do not often overpower me with it.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

The agony of grief which overpowered them at first, was voluntarily renewed, was sought for, was created again and again.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

The nausea overpowered me, and I managed to crawl to the side of the vessel.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

The remembrance seemed for a while to overpower her, and she drooped and would have sunk down but for her husband's sustaining arm.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

A gust of overpowering rage swept over him.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

When it became noon, and the sun rose higher, I lay down on the grass and was overpowered by a deep sleep.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

It must, as you say, have been an overpowering necessity which tore him away in such a fashion, and the same necessity is likely to hold him away.

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

Soil liquefaction, which causes this kind of landslide, occurs when the shaking from a large earthquake rips through moist, loose soil, overpowering the friction that normally holds dirt particles together.

(NASA Map Reveals a New Landslide Risk Factor, NASA)