overgovern
overgovern verb: to govern with too much rigidity or precision.
Verb
overgovern (third-person singular simple present overgoverns, present participle overgoverning, simple past and past participle overgoverned)
- To govern with too much rigidity or precision.
- In Europe, he says, we over-govern. The subjects of European governments would seem, according to his notion, to be brought into this world only to be licked and taxed.1833, Arthur Brooke Faulkner, Visit to Germany and the Low Countries in the Years 1829, 30, and 31
- He should not overgovern his neighbors and they should not overgovern him with countless laws calling for more clerks, more police and more rules and regulations and orders which few persons will obey.1924, Game Breeder and Sportsman, volumes 25-28, page 224
Forms of overgovern
| third-person singular present | overgoverns |
|---|---|
| present participle | overgoverning |
| past participle | overgoverned |
| past | overgoverned |
Origin of overgovern
From over- + govern.
Questions about overgovern
- What does overgovern mean?
- Overgovern means to govern with too much rigidity or precision.
- What part of speech is overgovern?
- Overgovern is a verb.
- What is the past tense of overgovern?
- The past tense of overgovern is overgoverned.
Words near overgovern in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: overgovern (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: “overgovern.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/overgovern. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.