Overread

//əʊvəˈɹɛd// adj, verb

adj, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To read over, or peruse. obsolete

    "Over the dore thus written she did spye, / Bee bold: she oft and oft it over-red, / Yet could not find what sence it figured […]."

  2. 2
    To interpret something to a greater degree, or in a more positive way, than appropriate; read in too much depth; overinterpret; overanalyze. ambitransitive

    "To overread Plath's houses is to transform these biographical documents into spatial ones."

  3. 3
    To read too much or excessively.
Adjective
  1. 1
    Having read too much.

Example

More examples

"Over the dore thus written she did spye, / Bee bold: she oft and oft it over-red, / Yet could not find what sence it figured […]."

Etymology

From Middle English overreden, from Old English oferrǣdan (“to read over; read through; consider”), equivalent to over- + read.

Related phrases

in depth

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.