Word.ws English Dictionary

overshadowing

overshadowing is the present participle and gerund of overshadow.

Meaning of overshadow

Verb

overshadow (third-person singular simple present overshadows, present participle overshadowing, simple past and past participle overshadowed)

  1. (transitive) To obscure something by casting a shadow.
    • While he thus ſpake, there came a cloud, and ouerſhadowed them, ⁊ they feared, as they entred into the cloude.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Luke 9:34
  2. (transitive) To dominate something and make it seem insignificant.
    • A branch of rail transport that seems to been rather neglected by historians is that concerned with cliff railways, of which a fair number exist in Great Britain. This is probably because these lines are overshadowed by the more spectacular funicular railways in Switzerland and other mountainous...1951 August, P. W. Gentry, “Cliff Railways”, in Railway Magazine, page 514
  3. (transitive) To shelter or protect.

Noun

overshadowing (plural overshadowings)

  1. A dominating shadow or malign influence.
    • Such trials to a peaceful people, only enhance their love of peace; for the grief-stricken heart flees to retirement and tranquillity. At the overshadowings of such afflictions, I should never tremble for my country, much less should I despair […]1831, Thomas Smith Grimké, Reflections on the Character and Objects of All Science and Literature

Forms of overshadowing

pluralovershadowings

Words formed from overshadowing

Questions about overshadowing

What does overshadowing mean?
Overshadowing means a dominating shadow or malign influence.
What is overshadowing the present participle and gerund of?
Overshadowing is the present participle and gerund of overshadow.
What part of speech is overshadowing?
Overshadowing is a noun.
What is the plural of overshadowing?
The plural of overshadowing is overshadowings.

Words near overshadowing in the dictionary

  1. overshadowed
  2. overshadower
  3. overshadowers
  4. overshadowest
  5. overshadoweth
  6. overshadowing
  7. overshadowingly
  8. overshadowings
  9. overshadowment
  10. overshadows
  11. overshadowy

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: overshadowing (page history and authors); overshadow (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: “overshadowing.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/overshadowing. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.