Overbreak
noun, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 Rock or earth excavated beyond the planned extent; caving in of material near the edge of an excavation.
"The overbreak depends on several factors. Foremost among them are the following: Spacing between the joints. Shattering effect of blasting on the rock located beyond the payline."
- 1 To cave in near the edge of an excavation. intransitive
"This proved wise as the south and west walls of the winder chamber overbroke badly and blocky ground was encountered in the area set aside for the electrical equipment."
- 2 To get over; recover from. UK, dialectal, transitive
"He was never able to overbreak his rheumatism."
Example
More examples"This proved wise as the south and west walls of the winder chamber overbroke badly and blocky ground was encountered in the area set aside for the electrical equipment."
Etymology
From Middle English *overbreken, from Old English oferbrecan (“to transgress, violate”), equivalent to over- + break.
Related phrases
More for "overbreak"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.