overweening

[oh-ver-wee-ning]

adjective

1. presumptuously conceited, overconfident, or proud.

   a brash, insolent, overweening fellow.

2. exaggerated, excessive, or arrogant.

   overweening prejudice; overweening pride.

overweening

/ ˌəʊvəˈwiːnɪŋ /

adjective

1. (of a person) excessively arrogant or presumptuous

2. (of opinions, appetites, etc) excessive; immoderate

Other Word Forms

• overweeningness noun
• overweeningly adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of overweening¹

1300–50; Middle English overwening ( e ) (gerund); overween, -ing ²

Word History and Origins

Origin of overweening¹

C14: _over- + weening, from Old English wēnan: see _ween

Example Sentences

Some foreign players, such as Iran and Russia, have seen for now at least the curtailment of the overweening influence they once had.

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But there’s something dingy and gross, like mottled drifts of old snow, about the overweening influence of Trump’s courtiers and their grubbing relationship with a president so obviously enamored of money and flattery.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

The single-actor format and clever use of camerawork give visual expression to the novel’s themes of overweening egotism and existential dread.

Read more on New York Times

I have long sided unreservedly with Truman on the issue — not so much on principle, I must admit, as because of MacArthur’s overweening, self-aggrandizing arrogance.

Read more on Salon

It’s as if their mother’s overweening nature couldn’t be defeated; it could only be eclipsed.

Read more on Los Angeles Times