Overstress

verb

verb ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To place excessive emphasis on something. transitive
  2. 2
    place special or excessive emphasis on wordnet
  3. 3
    To place excessive physical stress on something, especially to such an extent that it deforms or breaks. transitive

    "[...] the complete frame will withstand a standing and buffing load of 200 tons without overstressing."

  4. 4
    To stress someone excessively. transitive

    "“I think we better not catch him anymore right now,” said the vet. “We don’t want to overstress him.”"

Synonyms

All synonyms
accentaccentuateaggrandizeamplifyballyhoobelabor

Example

More examples

"[...] the complete frame will withstand a standing and buffing load of 200 tons without overstressing."

Etymology

From over- + stress.

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