overfish
overfish verb: to fish (an area or a species) excessively, often substantially reducing over several years the supply of one or more species of fish in an area.
Verb
overfish (third-person singular simple present overfishes, present participle overfishing, simple past and past participle overfished)
- To fish (an area or a species) excessively, often substantially reducing over several years the supply of one or more species of fish in an area.
- In the 1970s, it become^([sic]) increasingly clear that cod were being overfished in the northwest Atlantic Ocean.2001, Bob Ritter, “Chapter 4: Sustaining Aquatic Ecosystems”, in Science 10, Nelson Thomson Learning, page 152
Forms of overfish
| third-person singular present | overfishes |
|---|---|
| present participle | overfishing |
| past participle | overfished |
| past | overfished |
Origin of overfish
From over- + fish.
Words formed from overfish
Questions about overfish
- What does overfish mean?
- Overfish means to fish (an area or a species) excessively, often substantially reducing over several years the supply of one or more species of fish in an area.
- What part of speech is overfish?
- Overfish is a verb.
- What is the past tense of overfish?
- The past tense of overfish is overfished.
Words near overfish in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: overfish (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-overfish.wav.
Cite this entry: “overfish.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/overfish. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.