overgive

O1V4E1R1G2I1V4E1
UK/əʊvəˈɡɪv/

verb

To give too lavishly.

First used 15th c.Scrabble 15
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Meanings

verbovergive (third-person singular simple present overgives, present participle overgiving, simple past overgave, past participle overgiven)

present singular third person overgives · participle present overgiving · past overgave · participle past overgiven

  1. ambitransitiveTo give too lavishly.
  2. obsoletetransitiveTo give over, hand over, surrender; to relinquish.First known use 15th c.

    For th'heavens have decreëd to displace / The Britons for their sinnes dew punishment / And to the Saxons over-give their government.

    1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto III”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC
  3. obsoletetransitiveTo give up, terminate.First known use 16th–17th c.

Synonyms & antonyms

Also see
surrender

Origin

From over- + give. Compare Scots overgie (“to relinquish, resign”), Dutch overgeven (“to surrender”), German übergeben (“to hand over, surrender”), Danish overgive (“to surrender”).

Full word history & related roots →

Rhymes & wordplay

Anagrams

vegivore
Cite this entry
APA

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

MLA

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

Chicago

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

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