overwinter

UK/ˌəʊ.vəˈwɪn.tə//ˌoʊ.vɚˈwɪn.tɚ/

overwinter verb: to keep or preserve for the winter.

Verb

overwinter (third-person singular simple present overwinters, present participle overwintering, simple past and past participle overwintered)

(transitive) To keep or preserve for the winter.
- It is best to overwinter tender plants indoors.
- Well, if you're fortunate, you'll be able to overwinter your bees and keep them alive during the winter months.2014, Philip Hasheider, Samantha Johnson, The Complete Illustrated Guide to Farming, page 114
(intransitive) To spend the winter (in a particular place).
- Insects may overwinter in fallen fruit if it is not removed.
- Fish only overwinter in streams having a sufficient source of groundwater.1975, Alaska Natural Gas Transportation System

overwinter (not comparable)

Occurring over the winter season.
- The effect of seedling size on overwinter injury was analyzed separately by analysis of covariance.1996, Marek Jacek Krasowski, Measures to Reduce Overwinter Injury to Planted Spruce in Boreal Forest of British Columbia, page 4
- Overwinter survival ranged from 0% to 100% and increased with increasing fall total length and winter temperatures among all cohorts and reservoirs.2012, Issues in Global Environment

overwinter (not comparable)

During the winter.
- Ground cover of perennial grasses declined seriously under plots covered overwinter with dead thistle plants.1968, Earl F. Aldon, Detrimental Effect of Russian thistle on Semidesert Range in West Central New Mexico
- Moreover, each year of continuous corn cropping the corn stover would be turned under by fall plowing in preparation for the next spring planting, leaving the land bare overwinter.1985, Technologies to Benefit Agriculture and Wildlife, page 63

We overwinter our blueberry bushes in an unheated greenhouse, but when re-tubbed this year they will be too big to move.2014 April 8, Helen Yemm, “Thorny problems: How can I revive a forsythia hedge? [print version 5 April 2014, p. G9]”, in The Daily...
Different insects also differ in the way in which they overwinter.2011, Bob Gibbons, Field Guide to Insects of Britain and Northern Europe:
'Early Purple Sprouting' broccoli is so hardy you can let it overwinter and it rewards you with—yes, you guessed it—early purple sprouts that are tender and delicious.2012, Marie Iannotti, The Beginner's Guide to Growing Heirloom Vegetables:
The copepod Thermocyclops oithonoides rests overwinter as copepodids in lake mud in the Mugglesee and other lakes in Europe.2014, Lee Hannah, Climate Change Biology, page 95:

third-person singular present	overwinters
present participle	overwintering
past participle	overwintered
past	overwintered

From over- + winter. Compare Dutch overwinteren, German überwintern.

What does overwinter mean?: Overwinter means to keep or preserve for the winter.
How do you use overwinter in a sentence?: We overwinter our blueberry bushes in an unheated greenhouse, but when re-tubbed this year they will be too big to move.
What part of speech is overwinter?: Overwinter can be a verb, an adjective or an adverb.
How do you pronounce overwinter?: Overwinter is pronounced /ˌəʊ.vəˈwɪn.tə/ (UK).
What is the past tense of overwinter?: The past tense of overwinter is overwintered.

Adapted from Wiktionary: overwinter (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.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-overwinter.ogg.

Cite this entry: “overwinter.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/overwinter. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.