Etymology From Middle English overgon, from Old English ofergān (“to pass over, beyond, across, traverse, cross, transgress, overstep, overrun, overcome, overspread, conquer, come upon, overtake, seize, attack, pass off, pass away, end, overreach”), equivalent to over- + go. Cognate with Dutch overgaan, German übergehen, Swedish övergå.
Archaic To cross, go over (a barrier etc.); to surmount.
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Obsolete To pass (a figurative barrier); to transgress.
How many an one in its vanities hath gloried and taken pride, / Till froward and arrogant thus he grew and did all bounds o'ergo!1882, John Payne, trans., The Thousand Nights and One Night, vol 3
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UK, Dialectal To pass by, pass away; often, to go unnoticed.
He did not rave, he did not stare aghast, / For all those visions were o'ergone, and past […]1818, John Keats, “(please specify the page)”, in Endymion: A Poetic Romance, London: […] T[homas] Miller, […] for Taylor and Hessey, […], →OCLC:
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To spread across (something); to overrun.
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To go over, move over the top of, travel across the surface of; to traverse, travel through.
forward rode, and kept her readie way / Along the strond, which as she ouer-went, / She saw bestrowed all with rich aray / Of pearles and pretious stones of great assay […]1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto III”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
The fixed stars overgo Saturn, and so in them and all the rest, all is but one motion, and the nearer the earth the slower – a motion also whereof air and water do participate, though much interrupted.1625, Francis Bacon, The Praise of Knowledge:
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To go beyond; to exceed, surpass.
O, what cause have I, / Thine being but a moiety of my grief, / To overgo thy plaints and drown thy cries!c. 1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii]:
He seeks to persuade the queen not merely to emulate the Amazons' vigilant territoriality but to overgo them by emulating the Spaniards' rampant invasiveness.1992, Domna C Stanton, Discourses of Sexuality, page 177:
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To get the better of; to overcome, overpower.
Both barking Scilla, and the ſounding Rocks, / The Cyclops ſhelues, and grim Ceranias ſeat, / Have you ore gone, and yet remaine aliue?1594, Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Nash[e], The Tragedie of Dido Queene of Carthage: […], London: […] Widdowe Orwin, for Thomas Woodcocke, […], →OCLC, Act I, signature [A4], recto:
If it chance, that we be overgone / By his more swiftness, urge him still to run upon our fleet, / And (lest he 'scape us to the town) still let thy javelin meet / With all his offers of retreat.[1611?], Homer, “Book VI”, in Geo[rge] Chapman, transl., The Iliads of Homer Prince of Poets. […], London: […] Nathaniell Butter, →OCLC; republished as The Iliads of Homer, Prince of Poets, […], new edition, volume I, London: Charles Knight and Co., […], 1843, →OCLC:
All which, my thoughts say, they shall never do, But rather, that the earth shall overgo Some one at least.1614–1615, Homer, “(please specify the book number)”, in Geo[rge] Chapman, transl., Homer’s Odysses. […], London: […] Rich[ard] Field [and William Jaggard], for Nathaniell Butter, published 1615, →OCLC; republished in The Odysseys of Homer, […], volume (please specify the book number), London: John Russell Smith, […], 1857, →OCLC:
Biology, Genetics, Medicine, Natural sciences, Sciences A sequence of overlapping oligonucleotides, used to design hybridization.
Mixtures of such specific "overgo" probes can be used to screen arrayed library filters by DNA-DNA hybridization [...].1999, Birren & Green, Genome Analysis, page 207:
Hybridization of multiple overgoes produces many clones, perhaps 40 clones at a time.2004, Detrich, Westerfield & Zon, The Zebrafish: Genetics, Genomics and Informatics, page 318: