OVERHEAR (overheard)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected form: overheard   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does overhear mean? 

• OVERHEAR (verb)
  The verb OVERHEAR has 1 sense:

1. hear, usually without the knowledge of the speakers

  Familiarity information: OVERHEAR used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• OVERHEAR (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they overhear    ... he / she / it overhears   
Past simple: overheard   
Past participle: overheard   
-ing form: overhearing   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Hear, usually without the knowledge of the speakers

Classified under:

Verbs of seeing, hearing, feeling

Synonyms:

catch; overhear; take in

Context example:

We overheard the conversation at the next table

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

hear (perceive (sound) via the auditory sense)

"Overhear" entails doing...:

listen (hear with intention)

Verb group:

catch; get (perceive by hearing)

Sentence frames:

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

Sentence example:

They overhear that there was a traffic accident

 Context examples 

“Yes,” said Morland, who overheard this; “but you forget that your horse was included.”

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

You did not overhear what they said?

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

One may imagine her suffering on overhearing fragments of this sort of conversation.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

I cannot pretend to remember it, but it was something very fine—I overheard him telling Henrietta all about it; and then 'Miss Elliot' was spoken of in the highest terms!

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

Let me hear it. Mrs. Fairfax has said something, perhaps? or you have overheard the servants talk? —your sensitive self-respect has been wounded?

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Whether he were overhearing too, she could not determine.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

There were several, and those amongst the most experienced, who took the gloomiest view of Harrison’s chances, and it made my heart heavy to overhear them.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“I did not know that you intended to walk,” said Miss Bingley, in some confusion, lest they had been overheard.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

Meantime, he ran on, little supposing he was overheard.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

Then you could hardly have been overheard?

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