overspreading

noun, adj — 2 senses

overspreading

noun

1

That which spreads over something else.

But supposing that heaven had a Lord, then all included in its overspreadings and supportings, throughout the myriad of states, and within the four seas, would invariably be under the government of Heaven's Lord […]1847, Walter Henry Medhurst, A Dissertation on the Theology of the Chinese, page 252:

overspreading

adj

1

Rampant; encroaching.

The third part of practice hath divers branches, but one principal root in these our times, which is the vast and overspreading ambition and usurpation of the see of Rome; […]a. 1627 (date written), Francis Bacon, chapter VII, in James Spedding, editor, The Works of Francis Bacon, […]: The Letters and the Life of Francis Bacon […], volume IV, London: Longmans, Green, Reader, and Dyer, published 1858, →OCLC, page 270:

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