overegg
Syllables: over·egg/ˌəʊvəɹˈɛɡ/US/ˌoʊvəɹˈɛɡ/
overegg verb: chiefly in over-egg the pudding: to spoil (something) by exaggerating it, or an aspect of it; to overdo.
Verb
overegg (third-person singular simple present overeggs, present participle overegging, simple past and past participle overegged)
- Chiefly in over-egg the pudding: to spoil (something) by exaggerating it, or an aspect of it; to overdo.
- But hard riding men, in strange countries, are apt now and then to over-egg the pudding, as the Yorkshire landlord told his Grace of Cleveland.1839 September, Nimrod [pseudonym; Charles James Apperley], “A Hunting Tour in the Midland Counties: The Quorn: The Belvoir: And the Cottesmore”, in Craven [pseudonym; John William Carleton], editor...
- [Seymour] Hersh vilifies the [Richard] Nixon–[Henry] Kissinger team for the way they adapted the handling of the Vietnam "peace" talks to the sordid claims of the presidential election time-table, but he over-eggs the omelette. It is reasonable to criticise them for having pretended to the American...1983 October 8, Ian Davidson, “As they were [review of Kissinger: The Price of Power by Seymour M. Hersh]”, in Financial Times, number 29,140, London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 12...
- Synonyms:
- gild the lily, go overboard, take too far
Synonyms of overegg
Forms of overegg
| third-person singular present | overeggs |
|---|---|
| present participle | overegging |
| past participle | overegged |
| past | overegged |
| alternative form | over-egg |
Origin of overegg
From over- (prefix meaning ‘excessive; excessively’) + egg, from the phrase over-egg the pudding, a reference to adding too many eggs to a pudding and thereby ruining it.
Words formed from overegg
Words that rhyme with overegg
Questions about overegg
- What does overegg mean?
- Overegg means chiefly in over-egg the pudding: to spoil (something) by exaggerating it, or an aspect of it; to overdo.
- What part of speech is overegg?
- Overegg is a verb.
- How do you pronounce overegg?
- Overegg is pronounced /ˌəʊvəɹˈɛɡ/ (UK).
- What is the past tense of overegg?
- The past tense of overegg is overegged.
Words near overegg in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: overegg (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-over-egg.wav.
Cite this entry: “overegg.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/overegg. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.