Word.ws English Dictionary

overswaying

overswaying is the present participle and gerund of oversway.

Meaning of oversway

Verb

oversway (third-person singular simple present oversways, present participle overswaying, simple past and past participle overswayed)

  1. (obsolete) To hold sway over; to have power or dominion over, to rule, govern.
    • [T]he Presidents authoritie so overswayed the discretion of Master Scrivener, that our store, our time, our strength and labours were idely consumed to fulfill his phantasies.1624, Iohn [i.e., John] Smith, The Generall Historie of Virginia, New-England, and the Summer Isles: […], London: […] I[ohn] D[awson] and I[ohn] H[aviland] for Michael Sparkes, →OCLC
  2. To overrule.
  3. To cause (someone, someone's thoughts or intentions etc.) to go in a particular direction; to influence.
  4. To overpower, overwhelm.
    • Likevviſe the fragrancy of euery greene herbe yeeldeth ſuch a ſauour, as doth not a little obliterate and ouerſvvay the ſauour of the beaſt: […]1607, Conradus Gesnerus [i.e., Conrad Gessner]; Edward Topsell, “The English Bloudhounde”, in The Historie of Foure-footed Beastes. […], London: […] William Iaggard, →OCLC, page 152

Questions about overswaying

What is overswaying the present participle and gerund of?
Overswaying is the present participle and gerund of oversway.

Words near overswaying in the dictionary

  1. overswarmed
  2. overswarming
  3. overswarms
  4. oversway
  5. overswayed
  6. overswaying
  7. oversways
  8. overswear
  9. overswearing
  10. overswears
  11. oversweat

Source and license

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