overpeer

present singular third person overpeers · participle present overpeering · participle past overpeered · past overpeered

1. To peer over; to overlook.

   1906, Arthur Quiller-Couch (under the pseudonym “Q”), The Mayor of Troy, London: Methuen, Chapter 1, p. 16, In Admirals’ Row […] Miss Sally Tregentil would overpeer her blind and draw back in a flutter lest the Major had observed her.

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   […] the English, in the suburbs close intrench’d, Wont, through a secret grate of iron bars In yonder tower, to overpeer the city, And thence discover how with most advantage They may vex us with shot, or with assault.

   1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iv]

2. figurativelyTo rise above.

   1896, Charles G. D. Roberts, The Forge in the Forest, Boston: Lamson, Wolffe & Co., Part I, Foreward, p. 12, These patches are but meagre second growth, with here and there a gnarled birch or overpeering pine, lonely survivor of the primeval brotherhood.

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   The ocean, overpeering of his list, Eats not the flats with more impetuous haste Than Young Laertes, in a riotous head, O’erbears Your offices.

   c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene v]