Meanings
- uncountableExcessive fondness.
Pryor's overfondness for medium-tempo shuffles can make his shows a little predictable, and his stage presence is more sincere than flamboyant.
1997 July 4, David Whiteis, “Snooky Pryor”, in Chicago Reader2 more examples
Where those old songs give one a reassuring feeling even as they discuss personal calamities--losing a lover, or a job, or family, or discovering an overfondness for something addictive like alcohol, or pot, or, again, love--McFerrin's calamities are of the easily overcome, cardboard sort that appear in brief glimpses during ads depicting Reagan's America, brief signs of the bad that we can shoo away if we only keep up a good mental attitude.
1988 December 23, Ted Cox, “Don't Worry--Turn the Radio Off”, in Chicago ReaderThe brilliant light which blazed around the Throne could find no fault in the actual performance of any duty; but the critical eye and caustic pen had been prone for some years to allege an overfondness for pleasure and amusement and the pursuits of social life.
1910, J. Castell Hopkins, The Life of King Edward VII
Origin
From over- + fondness or from overfond + -ness.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
overfondness. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/overfondness
“overfondness.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/overfondness. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “overfondness,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/overfondness.
Source: overfondness on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.