Word.ws English Dictionary

overbuilt

overbuilt is the simple past and past participle of overbuild.

Adjective

overbuilt (comparative more overbuilt, superlative most overbuilt)

  1. Overdeveloped.
    • in the overbuilt exurbs of the megalopolis
  2. (mechanical devices, buildings) Built for heavier duty than might be predicted to be necessary.
    • the extra wind protection provided by the overbuilt framing

Meaning of overbuild

Verb

overbuild (third-person singular simple present overbuilds, present participle overbuilding, simple past and past participle overbuilt)

  1. (ambitransitive) To perform excessive construction on a building or in an area.
    • How much more interesting & worth writing about Betjeman's subjects are than most other modern poets, I mean, whether so-and-so achieves some metaphysical inner unity is not really so interesting to us as the overbuilding of rural Middlesex.c. 1962, Philip Larkin on John Betjeman
  2. (transitive) To build over or on top of another structure.
    • The architect wanted to overbuild the restaurant on top of an office.
  3. (transitive) To build with excessive size or elaboration.
  4. (intransitive) To construct more buildings than necessary in an area.

Forms of overbuilt

comparativemore overbuilt
superlativemost overbuilt

Questions about overbuilt

What does overbuilt mean?
Overbuilt means overdeveloped.
What is overbuilt the simple past and past participle of?
Overbuilt is the simple past and past participle of overbuild.
What part of speech is overbuilt?
Overbuilt is an adjective.

Words near overbuilt in the dictionary

  1. overbuild
  2. overbuilder
  3. overbuilders
  4. overbuilding
  5. overbuilds
  6. overbuilt
  7. overbulk
  8. overbulked
  9. overbulking
  10. overbulks
  11. overbulky

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: overbuilt (page history and authors); overbuild (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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Cite this entry: “overbuilt.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/overbuilt. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.