overfly
Americanverb (used with object)
-
overflies,
present (3rd person singular)
-
overflew,
past
-
overflown,
past participle
-
overflying
present participle
-
to fly over (a specified area, territory, country, etc.).
The plane lost its way and overflew foreign territory.
-
to fly farther than or beyond; overshoot.
-
to fly over or past instead of making a scheduled stop.
to overfly Philadelphia because of bad weather.
verb (used without object)
-
overflies,
present (3rd person singular)
-
overflew,
past
-
overflown,
past participle
-
overflying
present participle
verb
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
overflysimple
-
overfliessimple
-
have overflownperfect
-
has overflownperfect
-
am overflyingprogressive
-
are overflyingprogressive
-
is overflyingprogressive
-
have been overflyingperfect progressive
-
has been overflyingperfect progressive
Past
-
overflewsimple
-
had overflownperfect
-
was overflyingprogressive
-
were overflyingprogressive
-
had been overflyingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of overfly
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:
Some of them -- France, Spain and Italy -- did not allow US military aircraft deployed for the war to overfly their territories or to use bases.
From Barron's ● Apr. 24, 2026
Risch intends to “reroute aircraft taking off/landing from Boise Airport so that they would overfly neighborhoods in Meridian instead of flying over his property near the airport,” Coose wrote from his personal email account.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 17, 2023
The heart of Japan’s security problem is missiles, and not just from China; North Korea regularly tests ballistic missiles that overfly Japanese territory.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 12, 2023
Now Japan faced more and more threats from North Korea’s missile programme, including tests that overfly Japanese islands, Yoon said.
From Reuters ● Nov. 28, 2022
Nets are for thrushes, eagles are not caught so: We'll overfly or rend them.
From The Works of Lord Byron. Vol. 5 Poetry by Ernest Hartley Coleridge
“Unscheduled drone overflies can present a distraction and potential accidents to employees who operate heavy machinery,” McClure said.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 29, 2022
“The advantage offered by a hypersonic offense is that it overflies air defenses as we understand them today, and it underflies our missile defenses. It goes into the gap between air defense and missile defense.”
From Washington Times ● Jun. 10, 2020
I sense an extrusion, noodle-like, of a mood of ambulatory viewership from the hundreds of Chelsea art galleries that the park overflies.
From The New Yorker ● Oct. 7, 2014
Its purpose: to beam messages to Moscow via the Soviet satellite "Horizon" that overflies Western Europe.
From Time Magazine Archive
Mr. Lowell said, indeed, that it "overflies all other English lyrics like an eagle."
From English Verse Specimens Illustrating its Principles and History by Raymond MacDonald Alden
“She basically overflew the entire airport,” Hall said Monday afternoon.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 27, 2023
Homendy said it appears likely the FedEx plane overflew the Southwest plane during their takeoff role momentarily and then Southwest passed beneath the FedEx plane again as its speed increased on takeoff.
From Reuters ● Feb. 6, 2023
The report indicated that plane overflew the airport at low altitude and did not significantly climb while turning to reapproach the field.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 11, 2022
Whenever the presidential helicopter overflew a course, Bush telephoned Jenkins for a rundown.
From Golf Digest ● Mar. 8, 2019
After China declared an air-defense identification zone over Japan’s Senkaku Islands, a pair of B-52 bombers soon overflew the area.
From Washington Times ● May 27, 2015
The victims died on Sunday and Monday in Minas Gerais state, where rivers have overflown, leaving towns partially submerged.
From BBC ● Jan. 12, 2022
Its military this month deployed tanks to the Tajik border with Afghanistan and has overflown the region with ground-attack jets, ostensibly on training exercises.
From New York Times ● Jul. 29, 2021
"That island was overflown by a plane catapulted from the USS Colorado a few days after she went missing. The pilot didn't see any recent activity."
From BBC ● Aug. 9, 2019
According to the Palestinian Ma’an news agency, several Israeli bulldozers entered the southern Gaza Strip early on Thursday overflown by drones, which would fit with the timeframe described by the Israeli military.
From The Guardian ● Apr. 18, 2016
Four days after launching Sputnik into orbit, Radio Moscow announced the addition of one more city to its timetable of destinations that would be overflown by their satellite: Little Rock, Arkansas.
From "Hidden Figures" by Margot Lee Shetterly
As cool as it would be to land on the roof of your office like George Jetson, federal regulations forbid ultralights and experimental aircraft from overflying populated areas—cities, suburbs, highway corridors, etc.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 17, 2025
Ryanair, Europe's largest airline by passengers carried, said it will mainly be impacted by the limitation on overflying France.
From Reuters ● Sep. 15, 2022
North Korea said the missile was launched toward the waters off its east coast and on a high angle to prevent it from overflying other countries.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 30, 2022
Approaching Afghanistan from the north would require overflying Uzbekistan or Tajikistan — with either of those options also likely requiring overflight of Kazakhstan.
From Washington Times ● Sep. 15, 2021
Then came the reports from Syria: Russian warplanes were overflying the rebel-held province of Idlib.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 13, 2015
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.
