Overswell

//əʊvəˈswɛl// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    An excessive or sudden increase or flood (of something).

    "[The trial] drew a crowd […] that almost stormed the City Hall corridors. Three policement were needed to keep back the overswell."

Verb
  1. 1
    To swell or rise above (something, especially the rim of a container, the sides of something hollow, etc.). ambitransitive

    "In some years the river overswells its banks, causing widespread flooding."

  2. 2
    To cause (something) to be too swollen or large; to become too swollen or large. ambitransitive

    "[…] the rents of lands still grew higher upon every lease that expired, till they have arrived at the present exorbitance; when the frog, overswelling himself, burst at last."

Synonyms

All synonyms
overflowspill oversurge

Example

More examples

"In some years the river overswells its banks, causing widespread flooding."

Etymology

From over- + swell.

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