overstock
Americanverb (used with object)
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overstocks,
present (3rd person singular)
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overstocked,
past participle, past
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overstocking
present participle
noun
verb
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to hold or supply (a commodity) in excess of requirements
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to run more farm animals on (a piece of land) than it is capable of maintaining
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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overstocksimple
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overstockssimple
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have overstockedperfect
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has overstockedperfect
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am overstockingprogressive
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are overstockingprogressive
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is overstockingprogressive
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have been overstockingperfect progressive
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has been overstockingperfect progressive
Past
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overstockedsimple
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had overstockedperfect
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was overstockingprogressive
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were overstockingprogressive
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had been overstockingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of overstock
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:
This is what some of Friday’s release is made of — all the trimmings, tidbits and overstock that would otherwise end up in landfills or on the factory floor.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 5, 2026
The whole thing begins in two of my favorite corners of the grocery store: the overstock meat section and the slightly bruised produce bins.
From Salon ● May 19, 2026
During the early days of selling books online, he bought publisher overstock and made a nice living on eBay before Amazon put the squeeze on retail prices.
From Slate ● Mar. 25, 2026
Several companies are building marketplaces that aggregate idle capacity — consumer GPUs, academic clusters, enterprise overstock — and resell it at a fraction of centralized data-center costs.
From MarketWatch ● Dec. 3, 2025
I’d grabbed it at work, overstock they were looking to dump, and now I knew why: It was disgusting.
From "Burning Blue" by Paul Griffin
The onsite inventory includes many new materials, overstocks, last year’s models and construction-project misorders.
From Seattle Times ● May 5, 2023
Raccoons seem to regard humans as the rube roommate who overstocks the fridge and conscientiously cleans up after everyone else.
From Slate ● Sep. 30, 2016
His work includes tableaux of empty shelves, overstocks of completely unrelated products in shuttered departments, and mannequins facing inward, half naked and seemingly ashamed.
From BusinessWeek ● Jan. 30, 2014
Cagey shoppers can pick up Lauren's seconds and overstocks for 30% to 70% discounts at his factory-outlet stores, which are situated in such discreet locales as Appleton, Wis., and Tijuana.
From Time Magazine Archive
Swarms with overstocks of honey do not breed so well.
From Langstroth on the Hive and the Honey-Bee A Bee Keeper's Manual by L. L. (Lorenzo Lorraine) Langstroth
Then, when demand slowed, customers would end up overstocked, prices would plunge, and memory makers would fall on hard times.
From Barron's ● Jan. 2, 2026
He said the latest move by the government, which he described as a "very strange decision", would bring a "flood" of cheaper Chinese imports to an already overstocked market.
From BBC ● Feb. 7, 2025
The retail context is where approximately 14 per cent of avoidable food waste occurs as foods are often overstocked by grocery stores prioritizing constant availability at the expense of wasted product.
From Salon ● Apr. 22, 2024
In general, it’s difficult to completely attribute a fire to any individual factor, because flames are often fueled by a complex interplay of conditions — anything from overstocked forests to wind, Abatzoglou said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 22, 2024
And finally, if the ripe fruit survived the frost barrage and reached the packing-house, it was only to be pushed on into the "No Man's Land" of an overstocked market.
From Down the Yellowstone by Lewis R. (Lewis Ransome) Freeman
As part of those plans, the company has been tweaking its manufacturing base to reduce dependence on Asian supply chains, allowing it to respond to changing trends quicker and limit overstocking.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 29, 2026
Products are donated by food industry partners from surplus stock due to overstocking or seasonal packaging.
From BBC ● Nov. 18, 2025
As retailers try to recover from overstocking that has led to discounting in the United States, Puma said its inventories fell by 20.3% compared to their level on Sept. 30 last year.
From Reuters ● Oct. 24, 2023
Rather than overstocking on perishables and other products, buying appropriate quantities of food reduces waste.
From Scientific American ● Sep. 28, 2021
The overstocking of the Eastern and Indian markets during the trade boom of 1913, together with the financial crisis in India last year, has reduced the demand for cotton goods.
From The War and Democracy by
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.
