verb
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to build over or on top of
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to erect too many buildings in (an area)
-
to build too large or elaborately
Etymology
Origin of overbuild
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:
As with other industries overcome by artificial-intelligence euphoria, the main question is whether these companies might overbuild.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026
While it is true that memory prices are surging and major manufacturers haven’t significantly increased production or capital expenditures, history shows commodity chip suppliers always overbuild capacity at some point in the semiconductor cycle.
From Barron's ● Jan. 7, 2026
“It would be hard to overbuild downtown given those factors.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 14, 2022
When you are in this quarterly apparel fashion business, you overbuild and you are discounting.
From The Verge ● Jul. 4, 2022
In response, a large body of exercise science shows, our bodies initiate a variety of cellular mechanisms that fix the tears and strains and, in most cases, overbuild the affected parts.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 7, 2022
The AI build-out poses another wild card because investment booms built on new technologies often end with overbuilding.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 28, 2026
That’s costing companies more to borrow, while concern has been growing about potential data-center overbuilding and what U.S. companies might achieve from those investments.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 26, 2026
The business had been weakened by years of overbuilding, then battered by the pandemic as thousands of elderly residents died.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 29, 2026
Expect lower home prices and a bigger risk of overbuilding in the decades ahead, according to a new study.
From Barron's ● Jun. 28, 2026
And these technological therapies would have to be constructed, she said, so that they don’t invite their own side effects, like, say, overbuilding one neural network.
From "A Deadly Wandering: A Mystery, a Landmark Investigation, and the Astonishing Science of Attention in the Digital Age" by Matt Richtel
“We haven’t done that yet because we think that we have a use for the compute. Obviously if we get to a point where we feel like we have overbuilt, then that is an option.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 3, 2026
Only an overbuilt city can offer tenants security and freedom.
From Slate ● Sep. 10, 2024
By the end, the playing space, like the once pristine frontier, is so overbuilt you can see little else.
From New York Times ● Jun. 18, 2024
Banksy’s L.A. mural, 2010’s “Swing Girl,” is downtown, visible only from a deep alley between buildings — which is the point it makes about overbuilt places.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 12, 2024
That suggested that Berkeley’s thirty-seven-inch machine was already overbuilt.
From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik
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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.
