overwear

American  

[oh-ver-wair] / ˌoʊ vərˈwɛər /

verb (used with object)

overwore, overworn, overwearing

1. to use or wear excessively; wear out; exhaust; tax.

   needlessly overwearing her best workers; phrases overworn by repetition.

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Etymology

Origin of overwear

First recorded in 1570–80; over- + wear

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

overwear overworn

He lumbered between courtrooms with his cane and black leather bag, in a black suit he insisted on always wearing until he was acquitted, the jacket shiny in places from overwear.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 29, 2021

I have also with him leggings of heavier cloth for overwear.

From The first New Testament printed in English by

We were thin, with faces burned, withered, frozen and torn in fissures, with clothes ugly from overwear.

From My Attainment of the Pole by Frederick A. Cook

Where lines like “don’t give up; don’t stop believing; keep the faith” can transform from overworn platitudes into a chant of quiet confidence and inflate the listener’s heart like the Grinch on Christmas.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 18, 2025

But for British dramas fictional cops cannot get away from the cheaper and often overworn suits favoured by their non-fictional contemporaries.

From The Guardian ● Jun. 8, 2013

I will construe to them whence you come; who you are and what you would are out of my welkin: I might say element; but the word is overworn.

From Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare

For this wandering everlonger, evermore, Hath overworn me, And I know not on what shore I may rest from my despair.

From The Poetical Works of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Vol. I by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

On the evening previous, Ezra Bushnell, overworn by many attempts at navigating the machine, was taken seriously ill.

From The Only Woman in the Town And Other Tales of the American Revolution by Sarah J. Prichard

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