OVERBEAR (overbore, overborne)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

Irregular inflected forms: overbore    , overborne   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does overbear mean? 

• OVERBEAR (verb)
  The verb OVERBEAR has 3 senses:

1. overcome

2. bear too much

3. contract the abdominal muscles during childbirth to ease delivery

  Familiarity information: OVERBEAR used as a verb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• OVERBEAR (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they overbear    ... he / she / it overbears   
Past simple: overbore   
Past participle: overborne   
-ing form: overbearing   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Overcome

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Context example:

overbear criticism, protest, or arguments

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

dominate (be in control)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody

Sense 2

Meaning:

Bear too much

Classified under:

Verbs of sewing, baking, painting, performing

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

bear; turn out (bring forth)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s something

Sense 3

Meaning:

Contract the abdominal muscles during childbirth to ease delivery

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

bear down; overbear

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

compact; compress; constrict; contract; press; squeeze (squeeze or press together)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

 Context examples 

Twice Sir Nigel had been overborne, and twice Alleyne had fought over him until he had staggered to his feet once more.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

If the people had not been full of this lust for combat, it is certain that England must have been overborne.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Indeed, they are children both—the one wizened and cantankerous, the other formidable and overbearing, yet each with a brain which has put him in the front rank of his scientific age.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It was amusing to me to see how the detective’s overbearing manner had changed suddenly to that of a child asking questions of its teacher.

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

His bullying, overbearing manner was all gone too, and he cringed along at my companion’s side like a dog with its master.

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

It was transient: cleared away in an instant; but Anne could imagine she read there the consciousness of having, by some complication of mutual trick, or some overbearing authority of his, been obliged to attend (perhaps for half an hour) to his lectures and restrictions on her designs on Sir Walter.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

That the manner in which she treated the dreadful crime committed by her brother and my sister (with whom lay the greater seduction I pretended not to say), but the manner in which she spoke of the crime itself, giving it every reproach but the right; considering its ill consequences only as they were to be braved or overborne by a defiance of decency and impudence in wrong; and last of all, and above all, recommending to us a compliance, a compromise, an acquiescence in the continuance of the sin, on the chance of a marriage which, thinking as I now thought of her brother, should rather be prevented than sought; all this together most grievously convinced me that I had never understood her before, and that, as far as related to mind, it had been the creature of my own imagination, not Miss Crawford, that I had been too apt to dwell on for many months past.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Unfortunately an only son (for many years an only child), I was spoilt by my parents, who, though good themselves (my father, particularly, all that was benevolent and amiable), allowed, encouraged, almost taught me to be selfish and overbearing; to care for none beyond my own family circle; to think meanly of all the rest of the world; to wish at least to think meanly of their sense and worth compared with my own.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

I had no occasion of bribing, flattering, or pimping, to procure the favour of any great man, or of his minion; I wanted no fence against fraud or oppression: here was neither physician to destroy my body, nor lawyer to ruin my fortune; no informer to watch my words and actions, or forge accusations against me for hire: here were no gibers, censurers, backbiters, pickpockets, highwaymen, housebreakers, attorneys, bawds, buffoons, gamesters, politicians, wits, splenetics, tedious talkers, controvertists, ravishers, murderers, robbers, virtuosos; no leaders, or followers, of party and faction; no encouragers to vice, by seducement or examples; no dungeon, axes, gibbets, whipping-posts, or pillories; no cheating shopkeepers or mechanics; no pride, vanity, or affectation; no fops, bullies, drunkards, strolling whores, or poxes; no ranting, lewd, expensive wives; no stupid, proud pedants; no importunate, overbearing, quarrelsome, noisy, roaring, empty, conceited, swearing companions; no scoundrels raised from the dust upon the merit of their vices, or nobility thrown into it on account of their virtues; no lords, fiddlers, judges, or dancing-masters.

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

There are some who say, sire, said the burly De Clisson, that the score is already overpaid, for that without Gascon help Bertrand had not been taken at Auray, nor had King John been overborne at Poictiers.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)