overlisten
verbEtymology From over- + listen.
1
Ambitransitive, Rare To overhear or eavesdrop.
- You overlistened and heard me read the crystal, so to-night you know the King has commanded me to interpret the story.1920, Virginia Sheard, The Golden Apple Tree, New York, N.Y.: The James A. McCann Company, page 207:
- "I told you it is not logical." Hannah paced the floor. "But it's true. Before, I listened to Neil and the officers without any feelings of eavesdropping. But now I feel as if my ears were as big as saucers when I overlisten the most trivial snatches of conversation."1960, David Taylor, Storm the Last Rampart, Philadelphia, P.A.; New York, N.Y.: J. B. Lippincott Company, page 149:
1 more example
- Never mind that I had no right to do so—that at such an hour, and in such a place, this must be a private conversation. I did not hesitate to overlisten it.2014, Stephanie Barron [pseudonym; Francine Mathews], Jane and the Twelve Days of Christmas: Being a Jane Austen Mystery, New York, N.Y.: Soho Crime, →ISBN, page 96:
2
Rare To listen (to something) excessively.
- Having a person across the way who insisted, for the better part of September and October, on playing the new disc for at least three hours a day make one wonder how long it will take "rock's newest superstar" to become as overlistened to as the Beach Boys, Dave Mason, and the Eagles.1975 December 10, John Cale, “From the Sewers of the Subconscious”, in The Villanovan, volume 51, number 11, Villanova, P.A.: Villanova University, page 9:
- As the last heirs of the German humanities, these scholars saw their legacy disappearing in the solecisms of Nazi Deutsch. Here is why they may have overlistened and overreacted to American kitsch. What had already happened in Germany must not take place again.1983, Anthony Heilbut, Exiled in Paradise: German Refugee Artists and Intellectuals in America, From the 1930s to the Present, New York, N.Y.: The Viking Press, →ISBN, page 133:
1 more example
- Several years ago, in a misguided effort to reclaim closet space, I threw out all my CDs. Yes, all of them. I figured I'd uploaded most to my computer, and the rest I'd overlistened to anyway.2025 November 8, Melissa Kirsch, “Sound System”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 08 Nov 2025: