overgrowth

[ oh-ver-grohth ]

noun
  1. a growth overspreading or covering something.

  2. excessive growth: to prune a young tree so as to prevent overgrowth.

Origin of overgrowth

1
First recorded in 1595–1605; over- + growth

Words Nearby overgrowth

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use overgrowth in a sentence

  • The modest violet may exhale its fragrance through an overgrowth of noxious weeds—and humanity bears out the simile.

    Bucholz and the Detectives | Allan Pinkerton
  • Just what causes this overgrowth of connective tissue is not clear.

    Psychotherapy | James J. Walsh
  • It is the overgrowth of these qualities, to the detriment of the artistic element, that mars her later works.

    The Age of Tennyson | Hugh Walker
  • Lightning on peaks which were like polished jet—bare rock above, the lush overgrowth of jungle below.

    Voodoo Planet | Andre Norton
  • The nucleus of Biarritz is old, but that is out of sight in the modern overgrowth; Biarritz, as it is, is of this half century.