tower over

present singular third person towers over · participle present towering over · participle past towered over · past towered over

1. transitiveTo be much taller or higher than something; to loom over.

   It is this stretch which provides what is perhaps the most staggering scenic prospect of all; the impression made on the mind by the overwhelming height of the Eiger, towering over the train, is almost impossible to describe.

   1960 December, Voyageur, “The Mountain Railways of the Bernese Oberland”, in Trains Illustrated, page 754

2. figurativelytransitiveTo be much greater or more important than.

   There are three phyla of worms that, in terms of diversity and abundance, tower over the rest: the Roundworms (nematodes), the Annelids and the Flatworms.

   2012, Caspar Henderson, The Book of Barely Imagined Beings, page 87