overwrite
Americanverb (used with object)
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to write in too elaborate, burdensome, diffuse, or prolix a style.
He overwrites his essays to the point of absurdity.
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to write in excess of the requirements, especially so as to defeat the original intention.
That young playwright tends to overwrite her big scenes.
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to write on or over; cover with writing.
a flyleaf overwritten with a dedication.
verb (used without object)
verb
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to write (something) in an excessively ornate or prolix style
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to write too much about (someone or something)
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to write on top of (other writing)
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to record on a storage medium, such as a magnetic disk, thus destroying what was originally recorded there
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
overwritesimple
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overwritessimple
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have overwrittenperfect
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has overwrittenperfect
-
am overwritingprogressive
-
are overwritingprogressive
-
is overwritingprogressive
-
have been overwritingperfect progressive
-
has been overwritingperfect progressive
Past
-
overwrotesimple
-
had overwrittenperfect
-
was overwritingprogressive
-
were overwritingprogressive
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had been overwritingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of overwrite
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.
See Examples For:
There’s no denying “Goat” has a vibrant aesthetic, but that alone can’t overwrite its defects.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 12, 2026
"What we've tried to do is respect those tunes and not overwrite them, the melodies stay central, but they're presented differently. That sense of respect is something people really seem to respond to," Coyle explained.
From BBC ● Jan. 26, 2026
Depending on the rules you’ve set for yourself, this might be the moment for a small, intentional grocery shop: a handful of items meant to support what’s already in your kitchen, not overwrite it.
From Salon ● Jan. 11, 2026
A charger sold in the UK by Project EV allowed researchers to overwrite its firmware.
From Scientific American ● Jul. 13, 2023
But they don't say anything about our continuing the Consolidated payments on an overwrite basis, for the sale of devices they may make.
From Final Weapon by Leydenfrost, Alexander
That is, until another party overwrites his code, transforming him into the best reason for “Romulus” to exist.
From Salon ● Jul. 4, 2025
The hive-mind of our writers’ room and cast: a back-and-forth that writes and overwrites the characters and their choices, enriching the psychological stock of the soup.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 17, 2025
It overwrites their personhood, their lived experience, the degree to which they wish to be medicated.
From New York Times ● Feb. 21, 2020
IRS Commissioner John Koskinen testified before Congress last year that the backups were no help in recovering Lerner’s lost emails, in part because the IRS overwrites them every six months.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 27, 2015
Regardless of the level of language acquired, language overwrites the senses.
From The Civilization of Illiteracy by Nadin, Mihai
He waxed poetic when it didn’t help his prose and overwrote shamelessly.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 26, 2026
Anonymous: So powerful, thank you, that one selfless gesture overwrote an entire relationship.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 16, 2022
A 2012 attack that American officials attributed to Iran overwrote the hard drives of the Saudi state oil company Aramco with the image of a burning American flag.
From New York Times ● Jan. 8, 2020
Therefore, in certain circumstances, it accidentally overwrote some adjacent memory it wasn’t supposed to be using.
From Slate ● Feb. 27, 2017
"Will I blow all of this money baby/ Hammertime?" he wonders, much like Kanye West used to, before West's ego overwrote his more appealing insecurities.
From The Guardian ● Jan. 9, 2011
In his latest book, “Other Rivers,” Peter Hessler observes that in China, memory is often physically overwritten by the mechanics of development.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 7, 2026
In more than 250 of these, the incident had not been recorded, there was a system fault, the footage was of an unusable quality, or it had already been overwritten.
From BBC ● Feb. 24, 2026
Delegated lines of authority are muddied, overwritten by social contracts among agency leaders, and operations suffer huge bottlenecks because no one—often not even the political appointees—knows if they have the authority to make decisions.
From Slate ● Feb. 21, 2025
Before he abandons his original directive entirely, an effect of it being overwritten by other programming, he warns Rain that she won’t see him like a child anymore.
From Salon ● Aug. 26, 2024
Small and strange was the writing, overwritten and interlined by many hands, and all those hands were dust now.
From "A Wizard of Earthsea" by Ursula K. Le Guin
But such powerful dramas can have a habit of overwriting history - and Sheen’s performance could change forever how Prince Andrew will be remembered.
From BBC ● Sep. 18, 2024
Not only that, Povich adds, there's no unplugging or overwriting what Murdoch's done.
From Salon ● Sep. 25, 2022
He knows that just with a smile, with a look, he brings so much to it, and he really helped shape it so that we weren’t overwriting that character.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 14, 2022
The overwriting in this novel only rarely bothered me.
From New York Times ● Feb. 22, 2021
Because of this overwriting feature, logs were available to Finnell only for the relatively short period from October 1, 2001 to October 3, 2001.
From Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA) Ruling by United States District Court For The Eastern District Of Pennsylvania
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.
