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:
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 vines of a single zucchini or butternut squash can easily overgrow your entire raised bed.
From Salon ● May 22, 2022
The trees everywhere overgrow the road, so that it is totally impervious to the sun, except at a few places.
From Through East Anglia in a Motor Car by Vincent, J. E. (James Edmund)
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
Low-lying marshlands—beaver meadows where the wattled houses of the beaver had stopped up the current of streams till moss overgrew the swamps and the land became quaking muskeg—lay along the shores of the lake.
From Pathfinders of the West Being the Thrilling Story of the Adventures of the Men Who Discovered the Great Northwest: Radisson, La Vérendrye, Lewis and Clark by Laut, Agnes C. (Agnes Christina)
Those details overgrew, if one may so express it, the original trunk of the story itself as fungi grow over the stump of a tree.
From Knock, Knock, Knock and Other Stories by Garnett, Constance
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 said.
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
From among the dry bushes overgrowing the bed of the "khor," a big snake emerged and, gliding sinuously with the rapidity of lightning among the fragments of rocks, escaped to some hiding-place known to itself.
From In Desert and Wilderness by Sienkiewicz, Henryk
"It rained a lot this winter; the pastures were very overgrown," Rodriguez said.
From Barron's ● Jul. 25, 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
Is Microsoft laying off 3,200 employees from the Xbox division just a new boss coming in and pruning an overgrown asset, or is it a sign that console gaming is coming to the end?
From Slate ● Jul. 17, 2026
The playground is overgrown, and the modular buildings stand quiet and empty.
From BBC ● Jun. 1, 2026
Their overgrown gray manes completely covered their eyes.
From "The House of Hades" by Rick Riordan
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.
