overgrow
Americanverb (used with object)
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to grow over; cover with a growth of something.
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to grow beyond, grow too large for, or outgrow.
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to outdo in growing; choke or supplant by a more exuberant growth.
verb (used without object)
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to grow to excess; grow too large.
When the vegetable overgrows, it tends to be woody.
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to become grown over, as with weeds.
An untended garden will quickly overgrow.
verb
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(tr) to grow over or across (an area, path, lawn, etc)
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(tr) to choke or supplant by a stronger growth
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(tr) to grow too large for
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(intr) to grow beyond normal size
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of overgrow
First recorded in 1300–50, overgrow is from the Middle English word overgrowen. See over-, grow
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:
"Farmers are forced to overgrow to meet strict supermarket contracts, only to see tons of perfectly good food rejected because it doesn't meet cosmetic standards."
From Salon ● Jan. 28, 2025
We moved on to his backyard, where mi tío had trimmed hedges that the previous owner let overgrow.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 17, 2023
He will be checking on certain energetic perennials that his compositions rely on: Without editing, they will overgrow their territories, throwing off the weight of a design.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 10, 2022
People who take high doses of antibiotics tend to lose many of their normal gut bacteria, allowing a naturally antibiotic-resistant species called Clostridium difficile to overgrow and cause severe gastric problems, especially chronic diarrhea.
From Textbooks ● Jun. 9, 2022
The flowers of rhetoric and poetry have lost their freshness and charm; and a technical language has begun to supersede and overgrow them.
From Philebus by Benjamin Jowett
A few days of stubble almost overgrew a soul patch under his lip, like weeds overtaking a garden.
From New York Times ● Jun. 1, 2016
Grass overgrew "South Penn" embankments, saplings pushed their way through its rock ballast and water seeped higher and higher over the rubble of the tunnels.
From Time Magazine Archive
It showed no variation but of tint: green, where rush and moss overgrew the marshes; black, where the dry soil bore only heath.
From "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë
It showed no variation but of tint: green, where rush and moss overgrew the marshes; black, where the dry soil bore only heath.
From Jane Eyre by F. H. Townsend
Very striking was the life of Mohammed, the life of a pious and romantic statesman, but his work quickly overgrew his personality.
From The Agony of the Church (1917) by Nikolai Velimirović
Researchers speculate that people may have brought the rodent to California as a natural remedy to battle overgrowing vegetation or simply because they liked them.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 10, 2026
We are witnessing a population of infant black holes overgrowing their nurseries and flourishing faster than expected in the distant, early universe.
From Scientific American ● Sep. 21, 2023
"To walk on the roads because the path isn't safe because of all the hemlock and vegetation overgrowing, they're being put in this really difficult and unsafe position," she says.
From BBC ● Jul. 10, 2023
Both animals are being used to munch overgrowing vegetation and fertilize the soil to “rewild” the landscapes.
From Science Magazine ● Jun. 7, 2023
There was a faint but audible rustling in the shrubs overgrowing the wall on my left.
From The Betrayal by E. Phillips (Edward Phillips) Oppenheim
"These audits must identify broken streetlights, overgrown public spaces, abandoned buildings, unsafe transport routes and facilities, poorly secured parks, and other conditions that place women at risk."
From BBC ● Sep. 29, 2026
It remainsfenced-off, with trash and graffitiand with overgrown vines covering tributes to Kennedy.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 25, 2026
A few crumbling concrete blocks in an overgrown field are all that remains visible of what was once a sprawling Nazi forced labour complex around the Austrian town of Leobersdorf.
From Barron's ● Aug. 28, 2026
Shag carpet covered original terra-cotta floors, high-gloss paint coated nearly every wooden surface and overgrown weeds crowded the yard.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 2026
She looks around at the scraggly grounds, the overgrown bushes, the abandoned houses.
From "Before We Were Free" by Julia Alvarez
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.
