overstimulate
Americanverb (used with object)
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to stimulate (something) to an excessive or harmful degree.
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Physiology. to cause (someone) to experience sensory overload.
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Physiology. to cause (a gland, nerve, or other organ) to become overactive and produce an abnormal increase in its usual activity.
verb (used without object)
Other Word Forms
Explanation
Overstimulate means to overwhelm someone, or make something overactive. Feeling angry, frustrated, or upset in a noisy or brightly lit space might suggest that you're easy to overstimulate. Caffeine might overstimulate your brain and make it difficult to sleep, or loud music which is fun at first might eventually make you feel overwhelmed, or overstimulated. Stimulate means "to provide stimulus or input." Overstimulate means "to provide an overwhelming amount of input."
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.
The pulsating music, giant inflatables tossed into the crowd and sudden blasts of fog can overstimulate kids.
From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 3, 2025
Alicia also says day-to-day activities, like grocery shopping, medical appointments and haircuts, have been abandoned, as she prioritises preventing situations that could overstimulate her son.
From BBC • Jan. 3, 2024
Making a room hypertransparent for people who are deaf may overstimulate people who are autistic.
From Scientific American • Mar. 20, 2023
This happens when companies use a combination of salt, sugar and fat to create foods that overstimulate the taste buds — and yet are designed to never quite leave you feeling satisfied.
From Salon • Jan. 16, 2023
The poisonous taints circulating in the blood overstimulate or else depress and paralyze the brain and the nervous system.
From Nature Cure by Lindlahr, Henry
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.
