overmastering

UK/əʊvəˈmɑːstəɹɪŋ/

overmastering is the present participle and gerund of overmaster.

Meaning of overmaster

overmaster (third-person singular simple present overmasters, present participle overmastering, simple past and past participle overmastered)

(transitive) To overpower or overwhelm.
- Sir Jasper started from his chair, ashamed of the sick fancies that had, for the moment, overmastered him.1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “An Evening Alone”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 303

overmastering (comparative more overmastering, superlative most overmastering)

Which overmasters; dominating, oppressive, conquering.
- Their overmastering fear of witchcraft1911, James George Frazer, The Golden Bough, volume 11, page 20
- Yet from my very earliest consciousness I sensed with savage unswerving certainty that other people were not seized by the same rapacious greed, insatiable hunger, overmastering desire, shivering lust and terrible, hurting need that had me in its grip almost every hour of every day.2010, Stephen Fry, The Fry Chronicles

comparative	more overmastering
superlative	most overmastering

What does overmastering mean?: Overmastering means which overmasters; dominating, oppressive, conquering.
What is overmastering the present participle and gerund of?: Overmastering is the present participle and gerund of overmaster.
What part of speech is overmastering?: Overmastering is an adjective.
How do you pronounce overmastering?: Overmastering is pronounced /əʊvəˈmɑːstəɹɪŋ/ (UK).

Adapted from Wiktionary: overmastering (page history and authors); overmaster (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.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this entry: “overmastering.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/overmastering. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.