Overween

verb

verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To think too highly or arrogantly of (oneself). ergative

    "and they that overween, / And at thy growing virtues fret their spleen,"

  2. 2
    To make or render arrogant and overweening.

    "There is, I suppose, the cheap drama of man sticking his nose into an area where it does little good except to expand his already overweened vanity."

  3. 3
    To overwhelm. proscribed

    "The invasion of a vast enemy host upon the unprepared is unstoppable; the huge phalanx of tanks overweens our small army of trucks and rifles; […]"

Example

More examples

"and they that overween, / And at thy growing virtues fret their spleen,"

Etymology

From Middle English overwēnen (“to be presumptuous, be over-confident; presume”), from Old English oferwennan and oferwenian (“to be proud, become insolent, or presumptuous”), equivalent to over- + ween.

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