Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- transitive verb To overcome or subdue by inspiring awe.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To restrain, subdue, or control by awe, fear, or superior influence.
- Synonyms To intimidate, cow, daunt.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb To awe exceedingly; to intimidate or subjugate or restrain by awe or great fear.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb subdue, restrain, or overcome by affecting with a feeling of awe; frighten (as with threats)
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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No wealth will bribe, no name overawe, no artifice deceive, the guardian of those Elysian gates.
Harvard Classics Volume 28 Essays English and American Various
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No wealth will bribe, no name overawe, no artifice deceive, the guardian of those Elysian gates, In the deep sense, no vile or vulgar person ever enters there.
Sesame and Lilies. Lecture I.-Sesame: Of Kings’ Treasuries 1909
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"I saw no attempt to 'overawe' us," said the young girl.
An International Episode Henry James 1879
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In the fifth and sixth centuries, Christian monks served as private militias, holy head-breakers whom charismatic bishops could turn out at will to sack pagan temples, to rough up or kill opponents, and to overawe rival theologians.
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It is well that we are thus shielded by the familiarity of what is at once so certain and so unfathomable, from an astonishment which would otherwise absorb and overawe the function of that which is its object.
Carolyn Vega: Percy Bysshe Shelley "On Life" Carolyn Vega 2012
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Here is the means of showing that the immigrant communities can organize to consolidate their members, to agitate and campaign against their fellow citizens, and to overawe and dominate the rest with the legal weapons which the ignorant and the ill-informed have provided.
Multiculturalism: Mr Cameron's crude caricature solves no problems | Observer editorial 2011
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It is well that we are thus shielded by the familiarity of what is at once so certain and so unfathomable, from an astonishment which would otherwise absorb and overawe the function of that which is its object.
Carolyn Vega: Percy Bysshe Shelley "On Life" Carolyn Vega 2012
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He must have had this Wall Street gentry in mind, or at least their prototypes, for in every age it has been the tyrant, the oppressor and the exploiter who has wrapped himself in the cloak of patriotism, or religion, or both to deceive and overawe the people …
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It is well that we are thus shielded by the familiarity of what is at once so certain and so unfathomable, from an astonishment which would otherwise absorb and overawe the function of that which is its object.
Carolyn Vega: Percy Bysshe Shelley "On Life" Carolyn Vega 2012
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It is well that we are thus shielded by the familiarity of what is at once so certain and so unfathomable, from an astonishment which would otherwise absorb and overawe the function of that which is its object.
Carolyn Vega: Percy Bysshe Shelley "On Life" Carolyn Vega 2012
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