override

From Middle English overriden, from Old English oferrīdan, equivalent to over- +‎ ride. Cognate with Dutch overrijden, German überreiten, Danish override.

Verb

• (UK) IPA^(key): /əʊ.vəˈɹaɪd/
• (US) IPA^(key): /oʊ.vɚˈɹaɪd/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Noun

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈəʊ.vəˌɹaɪd/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈoʊ.vɚˌɹaɪd/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Audio (US):

  (file)

override (third-person singular simple present overrides, present participle overriding, simple past overrode, past participle overridden)

1. (transitive) To ride across or beyond something.
   • 2021 October 20, “Network News: Commuter train crashes into buffers at Enfield Town”, in RAIL, number 942, page 8:

     Around 50 people were evacuated from a rush-hour London Overground service on October 12, after an eight-car train overrode the buffers at Enfield Town station.

2. (transitive) To ride over the top of something, usually forcibly.
   • 1981 August 18, National Transportation Safety Board, “Collision and Derailment”, in Railroad Accident Report: Rear-End Collision of Union Pacific Railroad Company Freight Trains Extra 3119 West and Extra 8044 West, Near Kelso, California, November 17, 1980‎, archived from the original on 29 March 2022, page 6:

     Separation of the caboose from the VAN train had caused the train to go into emergency braking and when Extra 3119 West struck the third rack car, the car overrode the locomotive, destroyed the remaining superstructure, and caused the locomotive to overturn the north rail. The near-instantaneous derailment of the rest of the train followed immediately.

3. (transitive) To ride a horse too hard.
4. (transitive, intransitive) To counteract the normal operation of something; to countermand with orders of higher priority.

   Coordinate terms: come first, veto

   In automotive design, safety should override lesser factors such as cosmetics and corner-cutting.

   Congress promptly overrode the president's veto, passing the bill into law.

   • 1943 November – 1944 February (date written; published 1945 August 17), George Orwell , Animal Farm , London: Secker & Warburg, published May 1962, →OCLC:

     The needs of the windmill must override everything else, he said.

   • 2013 February 17, Bob Greene, “America’s ‘Slave Narratives’ should shock us”, in CNN‎:

     The power of the stories overrides everything else. The quiet starkness of the telling:

   • 2023 April 28, Greg Wallace, “FAA headquarters initially overrode its own engineers’ 737 Max grounding recommendation”, in CNN‎:

     The Federal Aviation Administration initially overrode its own engineers’ recommendations in 2019 to ground the Boeing 737 Max after a second fatal crash, according to a new watchdog report.

   • 2023 July 18, Jack Forrest, “Louisiana legislature overrides governor’s veto of ban on gender-affirming care for minors”, in CNN‎:

     “The first time I was overridden, on the Congressional district map, I said the bill was illegal and I expected the courts would throw it out. The courts have done so,” Edwards said in his statement Tuesday. “Today, I was overridden for the second time… I expect the courts to throw out this unconstitutional bill, as well.”

   • 2024 December 11, Arit John, “North Carolina’s GOP-controlled legislature erodes incoming Democrats’ political powers”, in CNN‎:

     Republicans in the North Carolina House pushed through a measure restricting the powers of the incoming governor and other Democrats, overriding outgoing Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto. The state Senate voted to override the governor’s veto last week.

5. (transitive) To give commands of a higher priority to an automated system; to take manual control of an automated system

   Manual controls allow the user to override the camera's default settings.

6. (object-oriented programming, transitive) To define a new behaviour of a method by creating the same method of the superclass with the same name and signature.

   How the cat runs is defined in the method run() of the class Cat, which overrides the same method with the same signature of superclass called Mammal.

• The form overrode is sometimes used as a past participle, in place of the standard overridden.

• (programming): overload

override (plural overrides)

1. A mechanism, device or procedure used to counteract an automatic control.
   • 2024 December 11, Arit John, “North Carolina’s GOP-controlled legislature erodes incoming Democrats’ political powers”, in CNN‎:

     The bill passed with 72 members voting for the override and 46 against.

2. A royalty.
3. A device for prioritizing audio signals, such that certain signals receive priority over others.
4. (object-oriented programming) A method with the same name and signature as a method in a superclass, which runs instead of that method, when an object of the subclass is involved.

• “override”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• “override”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
• override in Britannica Dictionary