Overspill

noun, verb

noun, verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    That which spills over. countable, uncountable

    "New towns were constructed to accommodate overspill from established cities."

  2. 2
    the occurrence of surplus liquid (as water) exceeding the limit or capacity wordnet
  3. 3
    the relocation of people from overcrowded cities; they are accommodated in new houses or apartments in smaller towns wordnet
Verb
  1. 1
    To spill over, to overflow, to spill out of.

    "Further, Coventry's prosperity and rapid growth was threatening that it as well as Birmingham would require to overspill its boundaries."

Synonyms

All synonyms
congestionexcessfillfloodglutknow no bounds

Example

More examples

"New towns were constructed to accommodate overspill from established cities."

Etymology

From over- + spill.

Related phrases

overspill estatespill over

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