overboard

adj, adv, verb — 5 senses

overboard

adj

/ˈəʊvə(ɹ)ˌbɔː(ɹ)d/

Etymology From Middle English overbord, overborde, equivalent to over- + board.

1

Nautical, Transport Outside of a boat; in the water.

Derived terms
man overboard, woman overboard

overboard

adv

Etymology From Middle English overbord, overborde, equivalent to over- + board.

1

Over the edge; especially, off or outside of a boat.

  • It was their practice to throw the scraps overboard.
  • Theon Greyjoy is the most well developed character on that stage, and the action comes down to him. Euron, with Yara underneath his ax, goads Theon into attack. But Theon is overwhelmed by the violence all around him, and instead he jumps overboard.2017 July 23, Brandon Nowalk, “The great game begins with a bang on Game Of Thrones (newbies)”, in The Onion AV Club:
1 more example
  • Afore we got to the shanty Colonel Applegate stuck his head out of the door. His temper had been getting raggeder all the time, and the sousing he got when he fell overboard had just about ripped what was left of it to ravellings.1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter VIII, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
2

Excessively; too much.

  • They really went overboard with the party preparations.
  • In reality, brains go overboard with this sort of fear validation. They love any chance to prove a fear is valid while ignoring all the reasons it's not.2021, Erika Moen and Matthew Nolan, “What is... jealousy?”, in Let's Talk About It, →ISBN, page 190:
Derived terms
go overboard, throw overboard

overboard

verb

Etymology From Middle English overbord, overborde, equivalent to over- + board.

1

To throw over the edge of a boat into the water.

  • ‘Call home that runt Edmund Bonner. He has trotted after me from Spain into France and I swear the next time we take ship I will overboard him.’2020, Hilary Mantel, The Mirror and the Light, Fourth Estate, page 565:
2

To cover (a ceiling) with plasterboard to create a new surface.

Related terms
overboarded, overboarding

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.