overly
overly adverb: to an excessive degree.
Adverb
overly (not comparable)
- To an excessive degree.
- Parents can be overly protective of their children.
- […] considering the circumstances of my situation, I saw it would not do for me to look out for an overly young woman, nor yet would it do for one of my ways to take an elderly maiden, ladies of that sort being liable to possess strong-set particularities.1821, John Galt, chapter 37, in Annals of the Parish, Philadelphia: M. Carey & Sons, page 214
- Synonyms:
- too, excessively, superfluously
- To a high degree; very.
- I'm not overly enthusiastic about meeting him.
- Superficially.
- […] let him not touche the quarters nor the heeles at al, vnlesse it be to make the seat of the shoe playne, & let that be done so superficially or ouerly as maye be, so shall the houes remayne alwayes strong.1566, Thomas Blundeville, The Fower Chiefyst Offices Belongyng to Horsemanshippe, London, “The true Arte of Paring, and shooyng all maner of Houes together […] ,” Chapter 5
- These kinds of reproofes, not vnfitly may be compared to hotte or hastie healing salues, which drawe a faire skinne ouer a fowle wound; which because it is not soundly cured from the bottome, but ouerly healed vp, doth afterward apostemate or fistulate, and becommeth more dangerous and desperate...1604, William Perkins, chapter 6, in A Commentarie or Exposition, vpon the Fiue First Chapters of the Epistle to the Galatians, Cambridge, page 482
- Carelessly, without due attention.
- […] you shall finde this, that all remissenesse, when a man doth a thing remissely, and ouerly, and perfunctorily, it argues alway a diuided intention, it is an argument that the whole minde is not set on it, but that the intention is distracted, and bestowed on other things:1629, John Preston, The New Covenant, or the Saints Portion, London: Nicolas Bourne, Sermon 9, p. 51
- If you expect the Poor should work cheaper, and not perform their Work slighter and more overly, as we call it, and superficially, you expect what is not in the Nature of the Thing.1728, Daniel Defoe, A Plan of the English Commerce, London: Charles Rivington, page 60
- With a sense of superiority, haughtily.
- The third [vice] is Arrogancie, and the fourth Pride, two vices neer a kinne, Cosen germans […] when men shall arrogate much unto themselves; looking overly and superciliously upon others.1650, John Brinsley the younger, An Antidote against the Poysonous Weeds of Heretical Blasphemies, London: Ralph Smith, page 3
Adjective
overly (comparative more overly, superlative most overly)
- Superficial; not thorough; careless, negligent, inattentive.
- The curteous Citizen bad me to his feast,
With hollow words, and ouerly request:
Come, will ye dine with me this Holy day?
I yeelded, tho he hop’d I would say Nay:1602, Joseph Hall, Virgidemiarium Sixe Bookes, London: Robert Dexter, Satire 3, page 52 - Hee prayeth but with an ouerly desire, and not from the deepe of his heart, that will not bend his endeauours withall to obtaine what he desireth:1627, Robert Sanderson, Ten Sermons, London: R. Dawlman, Sermon 3, p. 120
- The curteous Citizen bad me to his feast,
- Having a sense of superiority, haughty.
- Those that know no better, may rejoyce and exult in these worldly contentments; but those, who have had but a blink of the beauty of heaven, can look upon them no otherwise, than with an overly contemptuousnesse.1637, Joseph Hall, The Remedy of Prophanenesse, London: Nathanael Butter, Book 1, Section 8, p. 66
- Excessive; too great.
- […] there appears a very chilling want of open-heartedness on the part of Owen, produced perhaps by the somewhat overly and certainly most ungracious resentments of Baxter.1839, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, “Notes on Baxter’s Life of Himself”, in Henry Nelson Coleridge, editor, The Literary Remains of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, volume 4, London: W. Pickering, page 140
overly meaning in Bengali and Malayalam
overly in Bengali
- অত্যধিক, অতিরিক্তভাবে
overly in Malayalam
- excessively, unduly, inordinately
- അമിതമായി, കണക്കിലധികം, ക്രമക്കേടായി, അതിരുവിട്ട്, അതിർകടന്ന്, നിർമ്മര്യാദം
Examples of overly in a sentence
- She’s a real pretty girl got to be, though I can’t say I’m overly partial to that pale, big-eyed style myself.1908, Lucy Maud Montgomery, chapter 30, in Anne of Green Gables:
- Your race is overly sentimental; it distorts your judgment.1958, Robert Heinlein, chapter 11, in Have Space Suit—Will Travel, New York: Del Rey, page 238:
- This means, at times, long and perhaps overly discursive discussions of other taxa.1992, Rudolf M[athias] Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, Chicago, Ill....
Synonyms of overly
Forms of overly
| comparative | more overly |
|---|---|
| superlative | most overly |
Origin of overly
From over + -ly (adverbial suffix).
From over + -ly (adjectival suffix).
Words formed from overly
Questions about overly
- What does overly mean?
- Overly means to an excessive degree.
- What is overly in Bengali?
- Overly in Bengali is অত্যধিক, অতিরিক্তভাবে. See Overly meaning in Bengali.
- How do you use overly in a sentence?
- She’s a real pretty girl got to be, though I can’t say I’m overly partial to that pale, big-eyed style myself.
- What part of speech is overly?
- Overly can be an adverb or an adjective.
Words near overly in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: overly (page history and authors); Overly (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); overly (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license). 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.
Last updated:
Cite this entry: “overly.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/overly. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.