over-anxious

comparative more over-anxious · superlative most over-anxious

1. alternativeAlternative form of overanxious.

   What over-anxious care for details!

   1873, Emile Gaboriau, translated by Fred[erick] Williams and George A[lexander] O[tis] Ernst, The Widow Lerouge. A Novel., Boston, Mass.: James R[ipley] Osgood and Company, […], page 88, column 1

   3 more examples

   Fanny was confused, but it was the confusion of discontent; while Miss Crawford wondered she did not smile, and thought her over-anxious, or thought her odd, or thought her anything rather than insensible of pleasure in Henry’s attentions.

   1814 May 9, [Jane Austen], chapter X, in Mansfield Park: […], volume II, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, page 227

   In the case of the whippingboys, however, the closeness of the relationship was often given a somewhat negative interpretation by the teachers: The parents were over-anxious, ‘cottoned’ the boy, were overprotective.

   1978, Dan Olweus, “Personality factors and aggression: With special reference to violence within the peer group”, in Willard W. Hartup, Jan de Wit, editors, Origins of Aggression, Mouton Publishers, →ISBN, page 267

   It is so easy for over-anxious singers to squeak, to mispitch a note, or to forget the words, that the teacher must display absolute faith in his or her pupils’ ability to produce something of value.

   1995, T. M. Perry, Music Lessons for Children with Special Needs, London; Philadelphia, Pa.: Jessica Kingsley Publishers, →ISBN, page 64