Word.ws English Dictionary

overswelling

overswelling is the present participle and gerund of overswell.

Meaning of overswell

Verb

overswell (third-person singular simple present overswells, present participle overswelling, simple past and past participle overswelled)

  1. (ambitransitive) To swell or rise above (something, especially the rim of a container, the sides of something hollow, etc.).
    • In some years the river overswells its banks, causing widespread flooding.
    Synonyms:
    overflow, spill over
  2. (ambitransitive) To cause (something) to be too swollen or large; to become too swollen or large.
    • […] the rents of lands still grew higher upon every lease that expired, till they have arrived at the present exorbitance; when the frog, overswelling himself, burst at last.1729, Jonathan Swift, “Maxims Controlled in Ireland”, in The Works of Dr. Jonathan Swift, volume 15, London: W. Johnston, published 1765, page 243

See all 3 meanings of overswell

Noun

overswelling (countable and uncountable, plural overswellings)

  1. Excessive swelling.

Forms of overswelling

pluraloverswellings

Questions about overswelling

What does overswelling mean?
Overswelling means excessive swelling.
What is overswelling the present participle and gerund of?
Overswelling is the present participle and gerund of overswell.
What part of speech is overswelling?
Overswelling is a noun.
What is the plural of overswelling?
The plural of overswelling is overswellings.

Words near overswelling in the dictionary

  1. oversweetens
  2. oversweetly
  3. oversweetness
  4. overswell
  5. overswelled
  6. overswelling
  7. overswells
  8. overswept
  9. overswerve
  10. overswerved
  11. overswerves

Source and license

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