overween
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 0.00 in modern English
14
Scrabble Score
8
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
To think too highly or arrogantly of (oneself).
verb
To make or render arrogant and overweening.
verb
To overwhelm.
Example Sentences
- "and they that overween, / And at thy growing virtues fret their spleen,"
- "The clouds on Futurity Day bore out in a general way this prognostication. But he overweened himself."
- "There is, I suppose, the cheap drama of man sticking his nose into an area where it does little good except to expand his already overweened vanity."
- "Sometimes we manage to come up with original ways of viewing a world hardened, stratified, overweened by its own power, a world which believes itself as omnipotent as its technological achievements might seem to imply."
- "The invasion of a vast enemy host upon the unprepared is unstoppable; the huge phalanx of tanks overweens our small army of trucks and rifles; […]"
Etymology
From Middle English overwēnen (“to be presumptuous, be over-confident; presume”), from Old English oferwennan and oferwenian (“to be proud, become insolent, or presumptuous”), equivalent to over- + ween.