OVER AND OVER AGAIN

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does over and over again mean? 

• OVER AND OVER AGAIN (adverb)
  The adverb OVER AND OVER AGAIN has 1 sense:

1. repeatedly

  Familiarity information: OVER AND OVER AGAIN used as an adverb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• OVER AND OVER AGAIN (adverb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Repeatedly

Synonyms:

again and again; over and over; over and over again; time and again; time and time again

Context example:

the unknown word turned up over and over again in the text

 Context examples 

I stood, a wretched child enough, whispering to myself over and over again, "What shall I do?—what shall I do?"

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

For example, a person may worry all the time about germs and so will wash his or her hands over and over again.

(Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, NCI Dictionary)

“What think you now?” cried the west-countryman behind me, and in his excitement he could get no further save to repeat over and over again, “What think you now?”

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

But she still repeated the same words, continually exclaiming, “Oh, the river!” over and over again.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

He was easily secured, and, to my surprise, went with the attendants quite placidly, simply repeating over and over again: "The blood is the life! The blood is the life!"

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

It must come right, it must come right, I repeated to myself, over and over again.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

The lady’s, on the other hand, were most bitter, and when she raised her voice could be plainly heard. ‘You coward!’ she repeated over and over again. ‘What can be done now?

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

Studying the microscopic roundworm C. elegans led the researchers to find that defects in one protein cause animals to reorient themselves over and over again.

(Research on repetitive worm behavior has implications for understanding human diseases, National Science Foundation)

"I will go, Mr. Chairman," I kept repeating over and over again.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

And he conned the grub of the cache and the grub of the Hudson Bay Company post over and over again.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)