overharvest

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verb

To harvest too much, especially at an unsustainably high level.

“The fish in this area have been overharvested for years.”

OriginEnglish harvest ← Middle English over- ← Old English ofer- →
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Meanings

verboverharvest (third-person singular simple present overharvests, present participle overharvesting, simple past and past participle overharvested)

present singular third person overharvests · participle present overharvesting · participle past overharvested · past overharvested

  1. To harvest too much, especially at an unsustainably high level.

    The fish in this area have been overharvested for years.

nounoverharvest (plural overharvests)

plural overharvests

  1. An excessive harvest.

Origin

  1. Proto-Indo-European*úp
  2. Proto-Indo-European*upér
  3. Proto-Germanic*uber
  4. Old Englishofer-
  5. Middle Englishover-
  6. Englishover-
  7. Englishharvest
  8. Englishoverharvest

From over- + harvest.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

overharvest. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/overharvest

MLA

“overharvest.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/overharvest. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “overharvest,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/overharvest.

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