overfall
verbUK /əʊvəˈfɔːl/ · US /oʊvɚˈfɔl/
Etymology From Middle English overfallen, from Old English oferfeallan (“to fall upon, attack”), from Proto-West Germanic *obarfallan, *ubirfallan, from Proto-Germanic *ubirfallaną; equivalent to over- + fall. Cognate with Dutch overvallen (“to raid, overtake”), German überfallen (“to assault, attack, raid”), Swedish överfalla (“to attack”).
1
To fall on or spill over so as to cover (something).
- But her laugh stuck in her throat, for at that moment a shadow overfell the two houses1927, The Argosy - Volume 1, Issues 9-12, page 22:
- 1 of these ladies was strikingly handsome, with long black hair which overfell her face as she worked.1978 ·, John Christgau, Spoon, page 16:
3 more examples
- The troll overfell him. A moment he lay under that mass and could not breathe.1978, Robert H. Boyer, Kenneth J. Zahorski, Dark Imaginings: A Collection of Gothic Fantasy, page 165:
- But you, divine one, you, resounding to the end, when the swarm of rejected Maenads overfell him, you sounded over their screams with order; o beautiful one, out of the destroyers arose your uplifting play.2005, Theodore Ziolkowski, Ovid and the Moderns, page 61:
- When the tidal surge hits Britain, one arm goes up the west coast and the other goes through the English Channel. The slight time delay in their meeting cause one to overfall the other at certain points in Orkney.2017, Alastair Macleod, The Third Norn: at Bennibister:
2
To change or affect so as to pervade (something); to come over
- From thence King Hakon proceeded up the Dovrefield; but as he was going over the mountains he road all day after a ptarmigan, which flew up beside him , and in this chase a sickness overfell him, which ended in his death ; and he died on the mountains.1889, Snorri Sturluson, Samuel Laing, Rasmus Bjørn Anderson, The Heimskringla:
- Such a blankness overfell his face!1916, Katharine Tynan, The Middle Years, page 197:
4 more examples
- All three passages refer to the disaster that overfell Sennacherib's host and to nothing else.1923, Harold Marcus Wiener, The Prophets of Israel in History and Criticism - Part 3, page 171:
- Then a possessive silence overfell the house, and I was unable to fall to sleep again.1929, Shane Leslie, A Ghost in the Isle of Wight, page 17:
- A faintness overfell me.1941, Alfred Kreymborg, Poetic Drama, page 815:
- But in the fall of 1933 deep shadows from Cuba overfell the Montevideo Foreign Ministers Conference, where Secretary Hull hoped to restart his trade program after having been stalled at London.1971, Lloyd C. Gardner, Economic Aspects of New Deal Diplomacy, page 57:
3
To fall over; to spill from an edge or height.
- I had arrived at this conclusion, and was meditating on my possible conduct under the circumstances, as I groped my way gingerly enough in the dark shadow of a long crumbling wall, where the ivy clustered and overfell, when round a slight bend, obscured by straggling bushes , I came upon the most unexpected and picturesque sight imaginable – that of a gipsy camp.1900, Muriel Hine, “A Gipsy Wooing”, in The Windsor Magazine, volume 11, page 511:
- A dam fitted between the sixth control group and the first insected group caused the water to overfall into the lower series and thereby prevented upstream movement of infective cysts.1965, Transactions of the American Fisheries Society, page 54:
1 more example
- There is provision for excess water to overfall from the canal to the River Liffey below and, in times of water shortage, the process may be reversed using temporary pumping facilities.1998, Ronald C. Cox, Michael H. Gould, Ireland, page 110:
4
To fall over; to topple.
- Then back-toppling, crashing back – a dead weight flung out to wrack, Horse and riders overfell.1919, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Complete Poetical Works of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, page 300:
- But that's OK, I mean one is apt to overfall today because the work is so crucial.1975, Olson - Issue 3, page 14:
2 more examples
- And accordingly the said Indian went into his canoe at the mouth of the Great Bay , and when he was about a rod off the boat, the said John Keniston took up my gun and shot at him , and immediately after the canoe overfell and the Indian swimm'd towards the shore — and about a quarter of a mile further up the Bay, the other Indian which before had left the boat came off to them and inquired after his brother;1998, Historical New Hampshire - Volumes 53-54, page 92:
- An unusually large breaker for so mild a surf curled overhead, and he climbed out on her again, sinking both of them under as the wave crest overfell and smashed down.2002, Jack London, In Hawaii with Jack London: On the Makaloa Mat and Other Stories, page 223:
- Derived terms
- overfalling