OVERRUN (overran, overrunning)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected forms: overran    , overrunning   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does overrun mean? 

• OVERRUN (noun)
  The noun OVERRUN has 1 sense:

1. too much production or more than expected

  Familiarity information: OVERRUN used as a noun is very rare.

• OVERRUN (verb)
  The verb OVERRUN has 5 senses:

1. invade in great numbers

2. occupy in large numbers or live on a host

3. flow or run over (a limit or brim)

4. seize the position of and defeat

5. run beyond or past

  Familiarity information: OVERRUN used as a verb is common.

 Dictionary entry details 

• OVERRUN (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Too much production or more than expected

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

overproduction; overrun

Hypernyms ("overrun" is a kind of...):

production ((economics) manufacturing or mining or growing something (usually in large quantities) for sale)

Derivation:

overrun (flow or run over (a limit or brim))

• OVERRUN (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they overrun    ... he / she / it overruns   
Past simple: overran   
Past participle: overrun   
-ing form: overrunning   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Invade in great numbers

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Synonyms:

infest; overrun

Context example:

the roaches infested our kitchen

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

invade; occupy (march aggressively into another's territory by military force for the purposes of conquest and occupation)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s somebody
Something ----s something

Sense 2

Meaning:

Occupy in large numbers or live on a host

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Synonyms:

infest; invade; overrun

Context example:

the Kudzu plant infests much of the South and is spreading to the North

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

inhabit (be present in)

Sentence frames:

Something is ----ing PP
Something ----s something

Sense 3

Meaning:

Flow or run over (a limit or brim)

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Synonyms:

brim over; overflow; overrun; run over; well over

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

run out; spill (flow, run or fall out and become lost)

"Overrun" entails doing...:

course; feed; flow; run (move along, of liquids)

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

geyser (to overflow like a geyser)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Derivation:

overrun (too much production or more than expected)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Seize the position of and defeat

Classified under:

Verbs of fighting, athletic activities

Context example:

the Crusaders overran much of the Holy Land

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

defeat; get the better of; overcome (win a victory over)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sense 5

Meaning:

Run beyond or past

Classified under:

Verbs of thinking, judging, analyzing, doubting

Context example:

The plane overran the runway

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

overshoot (aim too high)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Something ----s something

 Context examples 

Shall the world, then, be overrun by oysters?

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Not long afterwards, the country was overrun by war.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

It was a vast slide that broke the straight wall of a cliff, and was overrun with brush and creeping plants, where a score of tribes could have lain well hidden.

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

The peace of Bretigny hath not made much change in these parts, quoth Sir Nigel, for the country is overrun with free companions and masterless men.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

We know equally that it must be a very difficult one, otherwise the creatures would have come down and overrun the surrounding country.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Here a yellow stream flows from rotted moose-hide sacks and sinks into the ground, with long grasses growing through it and vegetable mould overrunning it and hiding its yellow from the sun; and here he muses for a time, howling once, long and mournfully, ere he departs.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

How Jo did enjoy her 'wilderness of boys', and how poor, dear Aunt March would have lamented had she been there to see the sacred precincts of prim, well-ordered Plumfield overrun with Toms, Dicks, and Harrys!

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Add to this, the pleasure of seeing the various revolutions of states and empires; the changes in the lower and upper world; ancient cities in ruins, and obscure villages become the seats of kings; famous rivers lessening into shallow brooks; the ocean leaving one coast dry, and overwhelming another; the discovery of many countries yet unknown; barbarity overrunning the politest nations, and the most barbarous become civilized.

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

It was a crazy old house with a wharf of its own, abutting on the water when the tide was in, and on the mud when the tide was out, and literally overrun with rats.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

By your dress you should be one of those cursed clerks who overrun the land like vile rats, poking and prying into other men's concerns, too caitiff to fight and too lazy to work.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)