overcast
Americanadjective
-
overspread or covered with clouds; cloudy.
an overcast day.
-
Meteorology. (of the sky) more than 95 percent covered by clouds.
-
dark; gloomy.
-
Sewing. sewn by overcasting.
verb (used with object)
-
overcasts,
present (3rd person singular)
-
overcast,
past participle, past
-
overcasting
present participle
-
to overcloud, darken, or make gloomy.
Ominous clouds began to overcast the sky.
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to sew with stitches passing successively over an edge, especially long stitches set at intervals to prevent raveling.
verb (used without object)
-
overcasts,
present (3rd person singular)
-
overcast,
past participle, past
-
overcasting
present participle
noun
-
Meteorology. the condition of the sky when more than 95 percent covered by clouds.
-
Mining. a crossing of two passages, as airways, dug at the same level, in which one rises to pass over the other without opening into it.
adjective
-
covered over or obscured, esp by clouds
-
meteorol (of the sky) more than 95 per cent cloud-covered
-
gloomy or melancholy
-
sewn over by overcasting
verb
-
to make or become overclouded or gloomy
-
to sew (an edge, as of a hem) with long stitches passing successively over the edge
noun
-
a covering, as of clouds or mist
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meteorol the state of the sky when more than 95 per cent of it is cloud-covered
-
mining a crossing of two passages without an intersection
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
overcastsimple
-
overcastssimple
-
have overcastperfect
-
has overcastperfect
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am overcastingprogressive
-
are overcastingprogressive
-
is overcastingprogressive
-
have been overcastingperfect progressive
-
has been overcastingperfect progressive
Past
-
overcastsimple
-
had overcastperfect
-
was overcastingprogressive
-
were overcastingprogressive
-
had been overcastingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of overcast
Explanation
Use the adjective overcast when you're describing a cloudy sky. An overcast day can be dark, cold, and gloomy, or just quiet and calm. A day that's gray and cloudy is overcast, and a dull, sunless sky can also be described this way. A less common way to use overcast is when you talk about sewing — an overcast stitch catches the edge of the fabric to keep it from fraying — and the stitch itself is sometimes called an overcast. Before the weather-related adjective was coined, overcast was a verb meaning "to cover" or "to overthrow."
Vocabulary lists containing overcast
"Marriage is a Private Affair" by Chinua Achebe
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4.1: Causes and Consequences of Iberian Maritime Exploration and Colonialism (Sources 1–12)
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Lights Out: Synonyms for "Dark"
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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:
On an overcast Wednesday morning in Salt Lake City this summer, four bicyclists gathered in an industrial area not far from the city’s airport before fanning out across town.
From Slate ● Aug. 4, 2026
The warmest the Three Lions have played in was 25C for the final group game against Panama, but that featured overcast skies.
From BBC ● Jul. 11, 2026
It was a cool, overcast day and as the wind rustled the tree leaves, a baby coyote raced across the lawn in the distance.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 30, 2026
On overcast days, when the sun was hidden, pigeons that lacked the macrophages lost their sense of direction and had difficulty navigating home.
From Science Daily ● May 31, 2026
The big picture window loses heat to the overcast day, making the lounge chilly, but I can’t keep Callie warm during the day, when eyes are everywhere.
From "Challenger Deep" by Neal Shusterman
Three months earlier, Blankenship had told mine superintendents to "ignore" requests to build overcasts -- devices that are important for ventilating deadly gases from mines.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 8, 2010
Old flying boats venture out and up through pea-soup overcasts, often to rescue flyers from a sea so cold that few men have survived after floating in it for more than 30 minutes.
From Time Magazine Archive
When we first called she had just passed her fourth birthday, and now overcasts from three to four pairs of pants every day.
From The Arena Volume 4, No. 19, June, 1891 by B. O. (Benjamin Orange) Flower
If it with anger overcasts the eye, And heaven's bright purity perversely blackens, Then zephyr-sighs straight scare the clouds away, And, changed to tears, dissolve them into rain.
From The Poems of Goethe Translated in the original metres by Edgar Alfred Bowring
Why that ominous redness which overcasts the heavens?
From The Second Deluge by Garrett Putman Serviss
John Goodman can do the oaky solidity, but perhaps might be overcasting.
From The Guardian ● Nov. 29, 2012
The crosses being put in at the same time as the overcasting of the bars renders some forethought necessary to get each in at just the right time and place.
From Embroidery and Tapestry Weaving by Grace Christie
The librarian will insist not only that nine-tenths of fiction and juvenile books must be overcast, but that a special kind of overcasting must be used.
From Library Bookbinding by Arthur Low Bailey
Heavy rain-clouds were overcasting the sky when we set out, and we had scarcely covered the eleven miles of unmade road that connects Batala with Gadian when the downpour commenced, and continued throughout the day.
From Among the Wild Tribes of the Afghan Frontier A Record of Sixteen Years' Close Intercourse with the Natives of the Indian Marches by T. L. (Theodore Leighton) Pennell
The object of the overcasting is to prevent raveling while working the buttonhole and the fewer stitches which will accomplish this purpose the better.
From Handicraft for Girls A Tentative Course in Needlework, Basketry, Designing, Paper and Cardboard Construction, Textile Fibers and Fabrics and Home Decoration and Care by Idabelle McGlauflin
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.
