overlive

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US/oʊvəɹˈlɪv/UK/əʊvəˈlɪv/

verb

To survive; to live past.

OriginMiddle English overliven ← Old English oferlibban →
Scrabble 14
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Meanings

verboverlive (third-person singular simple present overlives, present participle overliving, simple past and past participle overlived)

present singular third person overlives · participle present overliving · participle past overlived · past overlived

  1. transitiveTo survive; to live past.
  2. transitiveTo outlive; live longer than.

    [M]y disease cannot survive me, I may overlive it.

    1624, John Donne, Meditation VII
    1 more example

    "Her Majesty's life will never be safe for a moment while she lives; and what would become of us all did she overlive the Queen!"

    1891, Charlotte M. Yonge, chapter 31, in Unknown to History: A Story of the Captivity of Mary of Scotland
  3. intransitiveTo live too long.

    Why do I overlive? Why am I mocked with death, and lengthened out to deathless pain?

    1667, John Milton, “(please specify the page number)”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC
    1 more example

    The misguided youngsters are yachting, attending the races, playing the "stage Johnny," automobiling, playing poker for high stakes, overliving at home, on expensive shopping tours, attending box parties to the theatre, visiting high-priced restaurants, etc., etc.

    1909, “"How Can He Do It?"”, in Notions and Fancy Goods, volume 43, page 30
  4. intransitiveTo live too fast, too luxuriously, or too actively.

Synonyms & antonyms

Also see
survive

Origin

  1. Old Englishoferlibban“to survive”
  2. Middle Englishoverliven
  3. Englishoverlive

From Middle English overliven, from Old English oferlibban (“to survive”), equivalent to over- + live. Cognate with Dutch overleven (“to survive”), German überleben (“to survive, outlive”), Swedish överleva (“to survive, outlive, outlast”).

More words from Middle English, Old English

Full word history & related roots →

Rhymes & wordplay

Anagrams

overveil
Cite this entry
APA

overlive. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/overlive

MLA

“overlive.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/overlive. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “overlive,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/overlive.

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