overscent

present singular third person overscents · participle present overscenting · participle past overscented · past overscented

1. transitiveTo give too much scent to (something or someone); to scent excessively.

   Licking articles is sometimes seen in an experienced dog when the handler is very nervous, has sweaty palms, and overscents the article.

   2003, Diane L. Bauman, chapter 39, in Beyond Basic Dog Training, Indianapolis: Howell Book House, page 179

   2 more examples

   1989, Dan Bertalan, Traditional Bowyers of America, East Lansing, MI: Envisage Unlimited, Chapter 10, p. 158, He figured the big bear was coming in downwind and picking up his scent. “So I moved the bait station about 200 yards to a better location. Most bear hunters won’t make so many changes because they’re scared of overscenting the area. But I knew I had to make changes to kill that bear. […] ”

   Adding aroma—by having fragrant flowers or flowering plants or using fragrant room sprays or candles—to a lounge/family room is lovely, but don’t overscent the room because it can increase, rather than decrease, tension and cause headaches!

   2007, Shannon Lush, How to Be Comfy: Hundreds of Tips to Make Your House a Home, Sydney: ABC Books, page 53

2. intransitivereflexiveTo apply too much scent to oneself.

   “Just spray in front of you, dear girl,” he advises. “Then walk into the mist. It’s vulgar to overscent.”

   2013, Maureen Lindley, A Girl Like You, London: Bloomsbury, page 293

   3 more examples

   It is never good taste to overscent one’s-self, but a person who uses no kind of artificial perfume at all, neither in soap nor in pomade, nor yet in the linen, is not always the most agreeable.

   1873, “Perfumes”, in Every Saturday, Series 3, Volume 3, No. 20, 17 May, 1873, p. 555

   Cologne and perfume are nice but use in moderation. If you overscent, you run the risk that your interviewer dislikes the smell, or even has a bad reaction to it.

   2000, Ronni Eisenberg, Organize Your Job Search,, New York: Hyperion, page 155

   A young lady does not spray herself with so much sun-ripened raspberry body splash that she attracts bees. She particularly does not overscent herself if she is going to be in a confined space with captive companions.

   2012, Kay West, chapter 11, in How to Raise a Lady,, Nashville: Thomas Nelson, page 120

3. To scent so as to cover or conceal the original odour.

   having the stinch of his railing tongue, over-sented with the fragrant ointment of this Prince’s memory

   1655, Thomas Fuller, The Church-history of Britain; […], London: […] Iohn Williams […], →OCLC, (please specify |book=I to XI), page 371

   1 more example

   […] she feels the truck moving toward her, rattling the small-town night with its rough bellow, close enough now to scrape the low-hanging branches and overscent the gentle lilacs,

   1994, Phil Condon, “And Quinn”, in River Street, Dallas: Southern Methodist University Press, page 93

plural overscents

1. A scent that is added to or layered over another.

   the familiar scent of his skin and the oddly boyish overscent of the wool sweater he wore

   1984, Ann Charlton, chapter 4, in No Last Song, New York: Harlequin, published 1985, page 67

   3 more examples

   Through the broken windows of the wheelhouse came a stench compounded of bog and decay, the watery overscent of the thrusting river that had lured Sir Walter Raleigh toward a mythical El Dorado.

   1977, Edward S. Aarons, chapter 1, in Assignment Tiger Devil, Greenwich, CT: Fawcett, page 5

   […] the stench of imminent death was almost more than I could bear. Worse was the overscent of abandonment.

   2000, Julie Czerneda, chapter 1, in Changing Vision, New York: DAW, page 15

   The air was cool and scented with sandalwood, a bracing, masculine scent. There was an overscent of hashish.

   2006, Kerry Greenwood, chapter 4, in Murder in the Dark, Scottsdale, AZ: Poisoned Pen Press, published 2009, page 47