overweening

Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word overweening. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word overweening, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say overweening in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word overweening you have here. The definition of the word overweening will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition ofoverweening, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.

English

Alternative forms

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

From Middle English overweninge, equivalent to overween +‎ -ing. Cognate with obsolete Dutch overwanig, overwaand (“presumptuous; cocky; conceited”).

Adjective

overweening (comparative more overweening, superlative most overweening)

  1. Unduly confident; arrogant
    Synonyms: presumptuous, conceited
    She wins one modeling contest in Montana and suddenly she’s overweening.
    • c. 1601–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, , page 263, column 2:
      Heere's an ouer-weening rogue.
    • 1842, [anonymous collaborator of Letitia Elizabeth Landon], chapter LXIII, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. , volume III, London: Henry Colburn, , →OCLC, page 175:
      The offer freely given was freely accepted, this gentleman already standing high in their opinion from his conduct to the Count; nor could they doubt that Lady Anne had lost herself many years of pleasant, and probably profitable intercourse with him, from her own acrimony of temper and overweening pride of manners; […]
    • 1870, Carl Schurz, George H. Thomas Eulogy:
      No success rendered him overweening and no disaster was ever known to stagger his firmness.
    • 1908, Frederic Bancroft, William A. Dunning, A Sketch of Carl Schurz’s Political Career:
      The Senate was displaying an overweening hauteur as if it were the government.
    • 2016 October 3, Tad Friend, “Sam Altman’s Manifest Destiny”, in The New Yorker‎:
      The Valley prizes overweening ambition but expects it to be “rifle-focussed” on making the world’s best houseboat-rental platform or Cognac-delivery service.
  2. Exaggerated, excessive.
    • 2015 January 4, Jonathan Rauch, “How to Make Men Free”, in NY Times‎:
      The idea that an overweening federal government is a threat to both freedom and equality (not to mention prosperity) goes back to Jefferson, James Madison, Patrick Henry and some other fairly respectable personages.
Derived terms
Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English overweninge, equivalent to overween +‎ -ing.

Noun

overweening (countable and uncountable, plural overweenings)

  1. (now rare) An excessively high opinion of oneself or one’s abilities; presumption, arrogance.

Etymology 3

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Verb

overweening

  1. present participle and gerund of overween
Wikious
Boobota
Sagapedia