overhang

American  

[oh-ver-hang, oh-ver-hang] / ˌoʊ vərˈhæŋ, ˈoʊ vərˌhæŋ /

verb (used with object)

overhung, overhanging

1. to hang or be suspended over.

   A great chandelier overhung the ballroom.

2. to extend, project, or jut over.

   A wide balcony overhangs the garden.

3. to impend over or threaten, as danger or evil; loom over.

   The threat of war overhung Europe.

4. to spread throughout; permeate; pervade.

   the melancholy that overhung the proceedings.

5. Informal. to hover over, as a threat or menace.

   Unemployment continues to overhang the economic recovery.

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verb (used without object)

overhung, overhanging

1. to hang over; project or jut out over something below.

   How far does the balcony overhang?

noun

1. something that extends or juts out over; projection.

2. the extent of projection, as of the bow of a ship.

3. Informal. an excess or surplus.

   an overhang of office space in midtown.

4. a threat or menace.

   to face the overhang of foreign reprisals.

5. Architecture. a projecting upper part of a building, as a roof or balcony.

overhang British  

verb

1. to project or extend beyond (a surface, building, etc)

2. (tr) to hang or be suspended over

3. (tr) to menace, threaten, or dominate

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noun

1. a formation, object, part of a structure, etc, that extends beyond or hangs over something, such as an outcrop of rock overhanging a mountain face

2. the amount or extent of projection

3. aeronautics

   1. half the difference in span of the main supporting surfaces of a biplane or other multiplane

   2. the distance from the outer supporting strut of a wing to the wing tip

4. finance the shares, collectively, that the underwriters have to buy when a new issue has not been fully taken up by the market

Etymology

Origin of overhang

First recorded in 1590–1600; over- + hang

Example Sentences

Overhang provides shade but hides angler in chair from helmsman's view.

From Time Magazine Archive

Overhang provides shade but hides angler in chair from helmsman's view.

From Time Magazine Archive

Squealing, the animal leaped to one side—to the verge of the out-thrust lip of the Overhang.

From The Heart of Canyon Pass by Holmes, Thomas K.

She had seen a great landslide—a large part of the Overhang she thought—fall into the canyon.

From The Heart of Canyon Pass by Holmes, Thomas K.

Overhang, ō-vėr-hang′, v.t. to hang over: to project over: to impend: to overlade with ornamentation.—v.i. to hang over.—n.

From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 3 of 4: N-R) by Various