Word.ws English Dictionary

overstare

overstare verb: to stare wildly.

Verb

overstare (third-person singular simple present overstares, present participle overstaring, simple past and past participle overstared)

  1. (obsolete) To stare wildly.
    • an overstaring frounced heada. 1569 (date written), Roger Ascham, edited by Margaret Ascham, The Scholemaster: Or Plaine and Perfite Way of Teaching Children, to Vnderstand, Write, and Speake, the Latin Tong, […], London: […]...
  2. (obsolete) To outstare.
    • I would o'erstare the sternest eyes that lookc. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...

Forms of overstare

third-person singular presentoverstares
present participleoverstaring
past participleoverstared
pastoverstared

Origin of overstare

From over- + stare.

Questions about overstare

What does overstare mean?
Overstare means to stare wildly.
What part of speech is overstare?
Overstare is a verb.
What is the past tense of overstare?
The past tense of overstare is overstared.

Words near overstare in the dictionary

  1. overstands
  2. overstarch
  3. overstarched
  4. overstarches
  5. overstarching
  6. overstare
  7. overstared
  8. overstares
  9. overstaring
  10. overstarvation
  11. overstarve

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: overstare (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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