overfall

Noun

overfall (plural overfalls)

1. A turbulent section of a body of water, caused by strong currents passing over submerged ridges.
2. Part of a garment that hangs so as to cover a lower part.

Verb

UK/əʊvəˈfɔːl/US/oʊvɚˈfɔl/

overfall (third-person singular simple present overfalls, present participle overfalling, simple past overfell, past participle overfallen)

1. (transitive) To fall on or spill over so as to cover (something).
   • But her laugh stuck in her throat, for at that moment a shadow overfell the two houses1927, The Argosy - Volume 1, Issues 9-12, page 22
   • 1 of these ladies was strikingly handsome, with long black hair which overfell her face as she worked.1978 ·, John Christgau, Spoon, page 16
2. (transitive) To change or affect so as to pervade (something); to come over
   • From thence King Hakon proceeded up the Dovrefield; but as he was going over the mountains he road all day after a ptarmigan, which flew up beside him , and in this chase a sickness overfell him, which ended in his death ; and he died on the mountains.1889, Snorri Sturluson, Samuel Laing, Rasmus Bjørn Anderson, The Heimskringla
   • Such a blankness overfell his face!1916, Katharine Tynan, The Middle Years, page 197
3. (intransitive) To fall over; to spill from an edge or height.
   • I had arrived at this conclusion, and was meditating on my possible conduct under the circumstances, as I groped my way gingerly enough in the dark shadow of a long crumbling wall, where the ivy clustered and overfell, when round a slight bend, obscured by straggling bushes , I came upon the most...1900, Muriel Hine, “A Gipsy Wooing”, in The Windsor Magazine, volume 11, page 511
   • A dam fitted between the sixth control group and the first insected group caused the water to overfall into the lower series and thereby prevented upstream movement of infective cysts.1965, Transactions of the American Fisheries Society, page 54
4. (intransitive) To fall over; to topple.
   • Then back-toppling, crashing back – a dead weight flung out to wrack, Horse and riders overfell.1919, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Complete Poetical Works of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, page 300
   • But that's OK, I mean one is apt to overfall today because the work is so crucial.1975, Olson - Issue 3, page 14