Word.ws English Dictionary

overbreak

overbreak verb: to cave in near the edge of an excavation.

Verb

overbreak (third-person singular simple present overbreaks, present participle overbreaking, simple past overbroke, past participle overbroken)

  1. (intransitive) To cave in near the edge of an excavation.
    • This proved wise as the south and west walls of the winder chamber overbroke badly and blocky ground was encountered in the area set aside for the electrical equipment.1958, Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, Proceedings - Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Issues 183-188
  2. (UK, dialectal, transitive) To get over; recover from.
    • He was never able to overbreak his rheumatism.

Noun

overbreak (plural overbreaks)

  1. Rock or earth excavated beyond the planned extent; caving in of material near the edge of an excavation.
    • The overbreak depends on several factors. Foremost among them are the following: Spacing between the joints. Shattering effect of blasting on the rock located beyond the payline.1946, Karl Terzaghi, Rock Defects and Loads on Tunnel Supports, page 49
    • The presence of faults and joint structures in stope walls within the ore body has resulted in overbreak of ore into adjacent stopes.2001, W.A. Hustrulid, Richard Bullock, Underground Mining Methods: Engineering Fundamentals and International Case Studies, page 248

Forms of overbreak

Verb
third-person singular presentoverbreaks
present participleoverbreaking
pastoverbroke
past participleoverbroken
Noun
pluraloverbreaks

Origin of overbreak

From Middle English *overbreken, from Old English oferbrecan (“to transgress, violate”), equivalent to over- + break.

Questions about overbreak

What does overbreak mean?
Overbreak means to cave in near the edge of an excavation.
What part of speech is overbreak?
Overbreak can be a verb or a noun.
What is the past tense of overbreak?
The past tense of overbreak is overbroke.

Words near overbreak in the dictionary

  1. overbranding
  2. overbrave
  3. overbravely
  4. overbravery
  5. overbreadth
  6. overbreak
  7. overbreaking
  8. overbreaks
  9. overbreathe
  10. overbreathed
  11. overbreathes

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: overbreak (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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