Word.ws English Dictionary

overling

overling noun: a superior.

Noun

overling (plural overlings)

  1. (rare) A superior.
    • But the idle-minded overlings who quibbled while they died, …1917, Rudyard Kipling, Mesopotamia (poem)
    • Reflex laughs from the underlings present, though only grim smiles from the overlings.1973, Thomas Pynchon, Gravity's Rainbow
  2. (UK, dialectal) A ruler; master.

Antonyms of overling

Forms of overling

pluraloverlings

Origin of overling

From over + -ling on analogy with underling, or as a revived or dialectal term from Middle English overling (“a superior”). By surface analysis, over + -ling.

Questions about overling

What does overling mean?
Overling means a superior.
What part of speech is overling?
Overling is a noun.
What is the plural of overling?
The plural of overling is overlings.

Words near overling in the dictionary

  1. overlimits
  2. overline
  3. overlined
  4. overlines
  5. overliness
  6. overling
  7. overlinger
  8. overlingered
  9. overlingering
  10. overlingers
  11. overlings

Source and license

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