Word.ws English Dictionary

overhanded

overhanded adjective: overhand. Also the simple past and past participle of overhand.

Adjective

overhanded (not comparable)

  1. Overhand.
    • That summer overhanded pitching was legalized, resulting in a slew of no-hitters, including the only ones ever pitched at Recreation Park.1998, Richard Bak, A Place for Summer: A Narrative History of Tiger Stadium, →ISBN, page 31
    • As has been mentioned earlier, there are various ways to hold a bow, the most obvious difference being between the overhanded method and the underhanded method.1963, Gertrude Jean Shaw, The Violoncello Sonata Literature in France During the Eighteenth Century, page 19
  2. Overstaffed.
    • If these proposed alterations were made, would not the best trades soon be overhanded?1867, John Watts, The Catechism of Wages and Capital, page 22

Adverb

overhanded (not comparable)

  1. Overhand.
    • As you get older though, you will definitely want to be able to serve overhanded.2013, Kacy Carter, Set to Serve, →ISBN
    • The chimney was built entirely from the inside platforms, the masons working overhanded, and thus no staging was necessary on the outside.1902, William Wallace Chrisite, Chimney Design and Theory: A Book for Engineers and Architects

Also used as

overhanded is also the simple past and past participle of overhand.

Examples of overhanded in a sentence

  • To make an overhanded knot, you pass the end of the rope over the standing part and through the bight.2013, William Brady, The Kedge Anchor; or, Young Sailors' Assistant, →ISBN, page 22:
  • An overhanded patch is used on material that is seldom washed, and where the raw edge on the wrong side is not objectionable.1927, The New Butterick Dressmaker, page 291:

Forms of overhanded

alternative formover-handed

Origin of overhanded

From over- + handed.

From overhand + -ed.

Questions about overhanded

What does overhanded mean?
Overhanded means overhand.
How do you use overhanded in a sentence?
To make an overhanded knot, you pass the end of the rope over the standing part and through the bight.
What part of speech is overhanded?
Overhanded can be an adjective or an adverb.

Words near overhanded in the dictionary

  1. overhallows
  2. overhalls
  3. overhand
  4. overhand knot
  5. overhand knots
  6. overhanded
  7. overhandicap
  8. overhandicapped
  9. overhandicapping
  10. overhandicaps
  11. overhanding

Source and license

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