Word.ws English Dictionary

overswim

overswim verb: to swim too fast or too strenuously.

Verb

overswim (third-person singular simple present overswims, present participle overswimming, simple past overswam, past participle overswum)

  1. (transitive) To swim too fast or too strenuously.
    • This is particularly true in the 100-meter race, where the temptation to overswim the first 50 meters can be strong. The desire to take it out fast can backfire when the swimmers goes into a vertical body position in the final 10 meters.2001, Dick Hannula, The Swim Coaching Bible, Volume II, page 182
  2. (archaic, poetic, transitive) To flood or inundate.

Forms of overswim

third-person singular presentoverswims
present participleoverswimming
pastoverswam
past participleoverswum

Origin of overswim

From over- + swim.

Questions about overswim

What does overswim mean?
Overswim means to swim too fast or too strenuously.
What part of speech is overswim?
Overswim is a verb.
What is the past tense of overswim?
The past tense of overswim is overswam.

Words near overswim in the dictionary

  1. overswerved
  2. overswerves
  3. overswerving
  4. overswift
  5. overswiftly
  6. overswim
  7. overswimming
  8. overswims
  9. overswing
  10. overswinging
  11. overswings

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: overswim (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: “overswim.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/overswim. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.