Word.ws English Dictionary

overenforce

overenforce verb: to enforce excessively.

Verb

overenforce (third-person singular simple present overenforces, present participle overenforcing, simple past and past participle overenforced)

  1. (transitive) To enforce excessively.
    • The application of substantive canons typically overenforces the Constitution. But because overenforcement in the context of statutory interpretation clips congressional prerogatives much less than overenforcement in the context of judicial review, the application of substantive canons is not in...2010, Amy Coney Barrett, “SUBSTANTIVE CANONS AND FAITHFUL AGENCY”, in Boston University Law Review, volume 90, number 109, page 176
    • I don’t know if it’s underenforcing or overenforcing the law. But, at least in the data, we see that Black officers are less likely to make a drug arrest than the others.2020 June 12, Kate Waldock and Luigi Zingales, “Should we defund the police?”, in Capitalisn't

Examples of overenforce in a sentence

  • The application of substantive canons typically overenforces the Constitution.2010, Amy Coney Barrett, “SUBSTANTIVE CANONS AND FAITHFUL AGENCY”, in Boston University Law Review, volume 90, number 109, page 176:
  • They overenforced the establishment clause and violated the free speech and free exercise clauses by taking aim at private religious expression.2024 August 25, David French, “The Christian Persecution Narrative Rings Hollow”, in The New York Times:

Antonyms of overenforce

Forms of overenforce

third-person singular presentoverenforces
present participleoverenforcing
past participleoverenforced
pastoverenforced

Origin of overenforce

From over- + enforce.

Questions about overenforce

What does overenforce mean?
Overenforce means to enforce excessively.
How do you use overenforce in a sentence?
The application of substantive canons typically overenforces the Constitution.
What part of speech is overenforce?
Overenforce is a verb.
What is the past tense of overenforce?
The past tense of overenforce is overenforced.

Words near overenforce in the dictionary

  1. overencumbrances
  2. Overend
  3. overendowed
  4. overenergetic
  5. overenergized
  6. overenforce
  7. overenforced
  8. overenforcement
  9. overenforces
  10. overenforcing
  11. overengined

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: overenforce (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: “overenforce.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/overenforce. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.