Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use overrule in a sentence

12 example sentences · verb

Overrule means to rule over; to govern or determine by superior authority. Example: “The line judge signalled the ball was in, but this was overruled by the umpire.”

Examples of overrule by meaning

verbTo nullify a previous ruling by a higher power.

  • The line judge signalled the ball was in, but this was overruled by the umpire.

More sentences with overrule

  • The head linesman overruled the decision of the linesman.From the entry head linesman
  • He gave me that glary look again, but he'd been overruled.2011, C. Y. Bourgeois, Visions of You, page 136. From the entry glary
  • I can't overrule the European director's decision to move you out of her arena.2006, Cate Dermody, The Firebird Deception, Silhouette Books, published 2006, →ISBN, page 113. From the entry hill to die on
  • How do you know that these cases have not been overruled or reversed?2005, Suzan D. Herskowitz, James E. Duggan, Legal Research Made Easy, page 96. From the entry good law
  • It became necessary for the State Board of Law Examiners to overrule the local board on that point.1973, The Bar Examiner, volume 42, Denver, Colo.: National Conference of Bar Examiners, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 79. From the entry rinky-dink
  • Finally, the two Third Circuit cases cited by the friends of the Court have, as they themselves say, been legislatively overruled.1948, United States Court of Appeals For the Ninth Circuit, No. 12027 Estate of Frank K. Sullivan […] v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue…. From the entry friend of the court
  • The Chair overruled the point of order.1914, “Journal of the Senate of Texas of the Second Called Session of the Thirty-Third Legislature, Convened August 24, 1914, and…. From the entry thereafter
  • Hoffman's freehanded approach to the law in silencing the defendants had angered many, and would later be overruled by a higher court.2011, Cathy Wilkerson, Flying Close to the Sun: My Life and Times as a Weatherman, →ISBN, page 301. From the entry freehanded
  • The court thus overruled all the states' protective laws, except against outright fraud, and declared open season on any products not protected by patents.1964 March 20, “Patents: Knocking Down the Pole”, in Time, →OCLC, archived from the original on 16 Apr 2016. From the entry open season
  • Lady Wallingford had been circulating defamatory libels against Buckingham, leading James to comment that Wallingford was like his father-in-law, 'altogether guided and overruled by an archwife'.2002, Pauline Croft, King James. From the entry archwife
  • After that dreadful, cow-handed response to her invitation yesterday, when he had, yet again, let his pride overrule his heart, Jack had been ready to give up.1993, Runaway Duchess, page 215. From the entry cow-handed

Meaning of overrule

  1. verb To rule over; to govern or determine by superior authority.
  2. verb To rule or determine in a contrary way; to decide against; to abrogate or alter.
  3. verb To nullify a previous ruling by a higher power.

Full definition of overrule

Questions about overrule in a sentence

How do you use overrule in a sentence?
Overrule is used as a verb. For example: “The line judge signalled the ball was in, but this was overruled by the umpire.”
What is a short sentence with overrule?
“The Chair overruled the point of order.”
What does overrule mean?
Overrule means to rule over; to govern or determine by superior authority.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: overrule (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use overrule in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/overrule. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.