verb
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to build over or on top of
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to erect too many buildings in (an area)
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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:
“AI is in the midst of a capex boom with genuine risks: uncertain monetization, potential overbuild, shortening asset lives, and growing reliance on debt.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 27, 2026
While this overbuild of capacity eventually proved useful, it initially led to poor returns on invested capital as telecom companies poured billions into infrastructure that sat idle for many years.
From Barron's ● Dec. 26, 2025
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
“What the models said was dramatically overbuild solar, and either export it when you have excess production or curtailment,” said Edward Randolph, who leads the regulatory agency’s energy division.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 5, 2019
The first was "whether there has been an overbuilding in technology and AI".
From BBC ● Apr. 18, 2026
Home builders have been struggling with affordability issues, some of their own making, and an oversupply problem following a period of overbuilding just as mortgage rates started rising.
From MarketWatch ● Feb. 18, 2026
They see Vanke’s troubles as an inevitable part of the slow and painful fallout from Beijing’s efforts to shrink the real estate sector and deal with years of debt-fueled overbuilding.
From Barron's ● Dec. 17, 2025
He and Maher’s teams had lengthy conversations early on in the process to prevent overbuilding the prosthetics, Gower said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 27, 2025
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
Should the departure continue, or even increase, experts say it’s still not likely L.A. will ever be overbuilt like some of its Rust Belt counterparts due to pent-up demand that has never quite been met.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 29, 2026
It had overbuilt its retail footprint with flagship stores, in many cases larger than necessary, in the most prestigious shopping districts around the world.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 18, 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
That suggested that Berkeley’s thirty-seven-inch machine was already overbuilt.
From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik
Definitions 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.
