Word.ws English Dictionary

overstain

overstain verb: to stain the surface of; besmear.

Verb

overstain (third-person singular simple present overstains, present participle overstaining, simple past and past participle overstained)

  1. (transitive) To stain the surface of; besmear.
    • It is very difficult to overstain with safranin. Wash slides with several changes of water, until water is no longer pink.2004, Robert N. Trigiano, Dennis J. Gray, Plant Development and Biotechnology - Page 46

Forms of overstain

third-person singular presentoverstains
present participleoverstaining
past participleoverstained
pastoverstained

Origin of overstain

From over- + stain.

Questions about overstain

What does overstain mean?
Overstain means to stain the surface of; besmear.
What part of speech is overstain?
Overstain is a verb.
What is the past tense of overstain?
The past tense of overstain is overstained.

Words near overstain in the dictionary

  1. overstage
  2. overstaged
  3. overstages
  4. overstaging
  5. overstaid
  6. overstain
  7. overstained
  8. overstaining
  9. overstains
  10. overstale
  11. overstamp

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: overstain (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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