overflourish

O1V4E1R1F4L1O1U1R1I1S1H4

verb

To make excessive display or flourish of.

Scrabble 21
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Meanings

verboverflourish (third-person singular simple present overflourishes, present participle overflourishing, simple past and past participle overflourished)

present singular third person overflourishes · participle present overflourishing · participle past overflourished · past overflourished

  1. obsoleteTo make excessive display or flourish of.

    Men, like falle Glasses, generally represent their Complexion better than Nature has made it. And as they are likely to overflourish their own Case, ſo their Flattery is hardest to be discover'd .

    1697, Jeremy Collier, Essays upon Several Moral Subjects
  2. obsoleteTo embellish with outward ornaments or flourishes; to varnish over.

    the beauteous evil / Are empty trunks o'erflourished by the devil

    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[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iv]

Origin

From over- + flourish.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

overflourish. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/overflourish

MLA

“overflourish.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/overflourish. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “overflourish,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/overflourish.

Source: overflourish on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.