Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- intransitive verb To grow over with herbage or foliage.
- intransitive verb To grow beyond or too large for.
- intransitive verb To grow beyond normal or usual size.
- intransitive verb To become grown over, as with unwanted vegetation or weeds.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To cover with growth or herbage.
- To grow beyond; rise above; grow too big for; outgrow.
- To overcome; weigh down; oppress.
- To grow beyond the fit or natural size.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- intransitive verb To grow beyond the fit or natural size; to grow too large.
- transitive verb To grow over; to cover with growth or herbage, esp. that which is rank.
- transitive verb obsolete To grow beyond; to rise above; hence, to overcome; to oppress.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb intransitive To
grow beyond one's boundaries or containments. - verb transitive To grow over; (of one thing) to cause (a second thing) to become overgrown (with or by the first thing).
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb become overgrown
- verb grow beyond or across
- verb grow too large
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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After a century that produced Gandhi, Nelson Mandela and the Dalai Lama as examples for how to "overgrow" oppression, the best these people can do is blow themselves and innocent civilians up?
The One Suggestion 2006
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Nervous attempts to treat it with antibiotics are problematic for two reasons: first, because they often suppress benign bacteria in the gut, thus allowing this E. coli to overgrow and flourish; second because if the E. coli is actually killed by the antibiotic, it releases the toxin and leads to the very complications that doctors are trying to avoid.
E. coli and the Fear Factor Marc Siegel 2011
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Following, is compiled some tell tale signs that your flash fiction or short story is attempting to flex its literary muscles and overgrow your files and time and demand to become a novel.
Is your short story begging to be a Novel? « Write Anything 2009
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Nervous attempts to treat it with antibiotics are problematic for two reasons: first, because they often suppress benign bacteria in the gut, thus allowing this E. coli to overgrow and flourish; second because if the E. coli is actually killed by the antibiotic, it releases the toxin and leads to the very complications that doctors are trying to avoid.
E. coli and the Fear Factor Marc Siegel 2011
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They set fire to bramble, seedlings, and fallen twigs, lest this underbrush “overgrow the Country, making it unpassable,” in the words of a contemporary traveler, William Wood.
The King's Best Highway Eric Jaffe 2010
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The bacterial flora stimulated by any probiotic can overgrow and cause bloating and vaginal irritation.
SO STRESSED William Kent Krueger 2010
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For, like a garden, the body is naturally wild, prone to disorder, and the less hedged about it is, the more it symbolizes the power of the people to overgrow their institutional fences.
BREAKFAST WITH SOCRATES ROBERT ROWLAND SMITH 2010
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They set fire to bramble, seedlings, and fallen twigs, lest this underbrush “overgrow the Country, making it unpassable,” in the words of a contemporary traveler, William Wood.
The King's Best Highway Eric Jaffe 2010
-
For, like a garden, the body is naturally wild, prone to disorder, and the less hedged about it is, the more it symbolizes the power of the people to overgrow their institutional fences.
BREAKFAST WITH SOCRATES ROBERT ROWLAND SMITH 2010
-
They set fire to bramble, seedlings, and fallen twigs, lest this underbrush “overgrow the Country, making it unpassable,” in the words of a contemporary traveler, William Wood.
The King's Best Highway Eric Jaffe 2010
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