overfall
Britishnoun
-
a turbulent stretch of water caused by marine currents over an underwater ridge
-
a mechanism that allows excess water to escape from a dam or lock
-
the point at which a sewer or land drainage discharges into the sea or a river
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.
The swell was unaccountably high, and the seas were curling over each other and breaking all round us just as if we were in a tide-race or overfall.
From The Cruise of the 'Alerte' The narrative of a search for treasure on the desert island of Trinidad by E. F. (Edward Frederick) Knight
He determined this time to carry out his old plan of searching for a passage up Davis’s “overfall”—so-called in allusion to the overfall of the tide which Davis had observed rushing through the strait.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 13, Slice 7 "Horticulture" to "Hudson Bay" by Various
About a coss lower down is an overfall where the water is not above three feet deep, but a mile in breadth, by which camels usually pass.
From A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 08 by Robert Kerr
A little above it, was an ancient overfall weir, which had also contributed to scour away the foundations of the piers.
From The Life of Thomas Telford; civil engineer with an introductory history of roads and travelling in Great Britain by Samuel Smiles
With the wind blowing violently, the current driving fast to the westward and a high sea increasing every moment, Paul was lost sight of for nearly forty minutes, in an unusually heavy overfall.
From The Story of Paul Boyton Voyages on All the Great Rivers of the World by Paul Boyton
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.
