overflow
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: enpr: ōʹvə-flō
ipa: /ˈəʊvəˌfləʊ/
enpr: ō-və-flōʹ
ipa: /ˌəʊvəˈfləʊ/
enpr: ōʹvər-flō
ipa: /ˈoʊvɚˌfloʊ/
enpr: ō-vər-flōʹ
ipa: /ˌoʊvɚˈfloʊ/
rhymes: -əʊ stripped-by-parse_pron_post_template_fn
Forms: form: overflows
form: overflowing
form: overflowed
form: overflowed
form: overflown
Etymology: From Middle English overflowen, from Old English oferflōwan, equivalent to over- + flow.
Senses: examples: text: The river overflowed the levee into the road.
text: Theſe are they that went ouer Ioꝛden in the firſt moneth, when it had ouerflowen all his* bankes, and they put to flight all them of the valleis, both toward the Eaſt, and toward the Weſt.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Chronicles 12:15:
text: Locally heavy rains on the 21st caused more than 2 feet of overflow on Salt Creek at Ashland, Nebr., on the 22d. Some county roads were inundated. Mill Creek which flows into the Platte River at Louisville, Nebr., overflowed its banks from the heavy rain.
ref: 1965 January 1, “General Summary of River and Flood Conditions-Continued”, in Climatological Data: National Summary, volume 16, number 1, Asheville, NC: United States Weather Bureau, page 265:
text: The shadows had begun to overflow Their stagnant puddles on the nightward side, When presently the roar of battle died
ref: 2018, John G. Neihardt, A Cycle of the West, page 461:
glosses: To flow over the brim of (a container).
examples: text: The flash flood overflowed most of the parkland and some homes.
text: So when they were working that evening at the pumps, there was on this head no small gamesomeness slily going on among them, as they stood with their feet continually overflowed by the rippling clear water […]
ref: 1851, Herman Melville, Moby-Dick:
glosses: To cover with a liquid, literally or figuratively.
glosses: To cause an overflow.
examples: text: The waters overflowed into the Ninth Ward.
synonyms: brim over
overbrim
overflood
glosses: To flow over the brim of a container.
examples: text: The hospital ER was overflowing with flu cases.
info_templates: extra_data: words: with
expansion: [with with]
synonyms: brim over
overbrim
glosses: To be subject to a load that exceeds limits or capacity.
examples: text: I see and feel that I want the first requisite — a heart overflowing with Divine love towards sinners
ref: 1857, Eustace Rogers Conder, Josiah Conder: A Memoir:
info_templates: extra_data: words: with
expansion: [with with]
synonyms: brim over
overbrim
glosses: To be subject to a load that exceeds limits or capacity.
To have something in superabundance; to abound in something.
examples: text: Calculating 255+1 will overflow an eight-bit byte.
text: Some programs, especially online games, tend to have coding problems that leave them with memory holes - in other words, they don't delete information from your PC's memory once they're finished with it, they just keep adding and adding until everything overflows. Eventually, this can cause the game to crash to desktop, but adding more memory can help prevent this.
ref: 2008, Adam Oxford, Windows Vista - Autumn 2008, Future US, →ISSN, page 67:
topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
glosses: To (cause to) exceed the available numeric range.
Derived terms: buffer overflow
full to overflowing
overflowable
overflower
underflow