overweening
/oʊvɚˈwinɪŋ/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.90 in modern English
18
Scrabble Score
11
Letters
3
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
noun
An excessively high opinion of oneself or one’s abilities; presumption, arrogance.
Archaic; Countable; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "She wins one modeling contest in Montana and suddenly she’s overweening."
- "Heere's an ouer-weening rogue."
- "The offer freely given was freely accepted, this gentleman already standing high in their opinion from his conduct to the Count; nor could they doubt that Lady Anne had lost herself many years of pleasant, and probably profitable intercourse with him, from her own acrimony of temper and overweening pride of manners;[…]"
- "No success rendered him overweening and no disaster was ever known to stagger his firmness."
- "The Senate was displaying an overweening hauteur as if it were the government."
- "The Valley prizes overweening ambition but expects it to be “rifle-focussed” on making the world’s best houseboat-rental platform or Cognac-delivery service."
Etymology
From Middle English overweninge, equivalent to overween + -ing. Cognate with obsolete Dutch overwanig, overwaand (“presumptuous; cocky; conceited”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /oʊvɚˈwinɪŋ/
- British English: /əʊvəˈwiːnɪŋ/
Usage
Inflected Forms
more overweening (comparative)
most overweening (superlative)
over-weening (alternative)
overweenings (plural)