overgraze
Americanverb (used with object)
verb
Etymology
Origin of overgraze
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
“It doesn’t make sense for us to overuse or overgraze the land when we need to come back to it,” she said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 7, 2025
The trick, Dobson said, is making sure that the cows don’t overgraze, which could deplete the soil and release greenhouse gases stored within it.
From Salon ● May 10, 2019
“If you overgraze, this landscape is quick to be unforgiving, and you’re going to be out of business,” he said.
From Washington Times ● May 15, 2017
"You could overgraze an arid land and convert it permanently to desert—that's a local threshold," Kareiva explains.
From Scientific American ● Nov. 7, 2013
Hardin’s idea explains why public bathrooms are so gross, why people litter, and, according to his original example, why farmers will let their cows overgraze communal fields.
From BusinessWeek ● Jul. 26, 2012
Finally, four days after Bamberger took his company public, in 1969, he bought the land of his dreams: 3,000 horribly overgrazed and eroded acres of derelict ranchland in Johnson City, Texas.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 4, 2026
By controlling deer and elk populations, gray wolves allow overgrazed vegetation and trees to regrow, creating ripple effects that boost biodiversity and improve the overall health of the landscape.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 25, 2025
"If an auroch or mammoth overgrazed, then the plant alkaloids would make it not feel very well," he says.
From BBC ● Jul. 10, 2023
Without its top predator, the ecosystem fell out of balance; elk and deer overgrazed trees that were essential shelter for birds.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 3, 2023
Thus, just about every small pasture was overgrazed and had been overgrazed ever since the government and the Ladd Devine Company appropriated most of the rest of the county some one hundred years ago.
From "The Milagro Beanfield War" by John Nichols
Hardin used the example of herders sharing a common pasture, where each herder’s rational decision to add one more animal to graze would eventually lead to overgrazing and the pasture’s destruction.
From Salon ● Jul. 12, 2025
According to the WWF, snow leopards hunt ibex and blue sheep, which stops these animals from overgrazing and helps to preserve grasslands so villagers can feed their livestock.
From BBC ● Apr. 20, 2025
While overgrazing is not yet a widespread occurrence across the Western Atlantic, it already occurs in subtropical to temperate waters around Australia and in the Mediterranean.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 6, 2024
The world is rapidly losing usable land for self-inflicted reasons, ranging from intensive agriculture and overgrazing of livestock to real estate development and, yes, climate change.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 18, 2024
Slash-and-burn agriculture, industrial tropical deforestation and overgrazing are rampant today.
From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan
Random Word
Spin the wheel and learn a new word!
Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
