Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Overpowered or overcome.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb Simple past tense and past participle of overbear.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Captain Glass met the first man springing up the companionway from the cabin, with a kick full in the face, but was overborne and trampled on by the rush.

    THE DEVILS OF FUATINO 2010

  • He was overborne, swept back against the ropes, separated by the referee, and swept back against the ropes again.

    The Mexican 2010

  • Indeed, she had only roused herself from her apathy at the threat of losing the Worm, when she had (in the words of Shurland) kicked up such a dust that he had overborne his wife and allowed the duenna to remain.

    Gatlinburg 2010

  • Following the trial, the people of New York City awarded Hamilton the 'freedom of the city' and gave him a gold box inscribed with "For let the laws be never so much overborne by some one individual's power, let the spirit of freedom be never so intimidated, still sooner or later they assert themselves."

    Jury Nullification: The Right of Free Americans 2009

  • And she ` s going to have one tough defense to argue that her will was overborne or she was tricked into this situation.

    CNN Transcript Jun 18, 2009 2009

  • And, overborne by his naughtiness, I purpose to break his ill-sounding arrows and his bow in his very sight.

    The Argonautica 2008

  • Even though the South Dakota law went down to defeat, it signals an important shift in pro-life rhetoric, moving from arguments that the fetus is a person and abortion is murder to arguments that no women willingly choose abortion unless they are tricked into it or their will is overborne, and that abortion hurts women.

    Balkinization 2006

  • I think Salamandyr suggests the pertinent question -- do such men as KSM have a right not to have their will overborne by means other than verbal persuasion?

    "The inhalation brought the damp cloths tight against my nostrils, as if a huge, wet paw had been suddenly and annihilatingly clamped over my face." Ann Althouse 2008

  • She's overborne and self-assured … DiMEO: Jon Bon Jovi says that, suddenly, a lot of bands were falling all over themselves trying to fake their way into the new trend, but not his.

    Bon Jovi's New Anthems Have A Twang 2008

  • “Doubt not me, Catherine,” replied the Queen; “a while since I was overborne, but I have recalled the spirit of my earlier and more sprightly days, when I used to accompany my armed nobles, and wish to be myself a man, to know what life it was to be in the fields with sword and buckler, jack, and knapscap.”

    The Abbot 2008

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