overbow

English

Etymology 1

From over- +‎ bow. (This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Pronunciation

• (verb) IPA^(key): /ˌəʊvə(ɹ)ˈbəʊ/
• (noun) IPA^(key): /ˈəʊvə(ɹ)ˌbəʊ/
• Hyphenation: over‧bow

Verb

overbow (third-person singular simple present overbows, present participle overbowing, simple past and past participle overbowed)

1. (chiefly poetic, transitive) To arch over.
   • 1856, Thomas Leigh, Garlands of Verse, page 51:

     Now her white lips would kiss away the gore— Speed, Alice, speed, or thou Wilt have but my dead frame to overbow!

   • 1887 June, John W. Chadwick, “The Revelation of God”, in Joseph Henry Allen, editor, The Unitarian Review, volume 27, number 6, page 491:

     Like one who climbs a mountain's mighty stairs, and finds himself at length with nothing but the immeasurable sky above him, so from generalization to generalization he ascends, to find himself at length alone with the Alone, embraced and overbowed with nothing but the infinite of God.

   • 1894, Reginald Fanshawe, Two Lives: A Poem, page 102:

     The clouds and sun that overbow Low nature's movement, they alone have seen Her truth in aspiration's flower.

2. (transitive) To bow or bend (something) over beyond its natural trajectory; to bend in a contrary direction.
   • 1639, Thomas Fuller, “The Albingenses Their Answer, Confessing Some, Denying Most Crimes Laid to Their Charge; Commendations Their Adversaries Give Them”, in The Historie of the Holy Warre, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: […] Thomas Buck, one of the printers to the Universitie of Cambridge [and sold by John Williams, London], →OCLC, book III, page 142:

     True it is, becauſe moſt in that age ranne riot in adoring of Churches […] the Waldenſes (out of that old errour not yet worn out, That the beſt way to ſtraighten what is crooked, is to over-bow it) denied Churches that relative holineſſe and fit reverence due unto them.

   • 1994, Norman Lester Rowe, John Llewellyn Williams, Rowe and Williams' Maxillofacial Injuries, page 370:

     The amount by which the plate is overbowed must correspond to the thickness of the mandible.

   • 2012, Victor Canning, The Crimson Chalice:

     She could pick up the overhead passage of a squirrel or the quiet foraging of Cuna in the sedges and rising bracken growths of the shrine hillside, and sometimes the overbowed tip of brier or hogweed where some harvest mouse or wren or blue tit swung unseen, searching for insects and grubs.

   • 2018, Salah Khalfallah, Structural Analysis 2: Statically Indeterminate Structures, page 310:

     In this case, we distinguish overbowed arches, arches with an average rise and arches with a significant rise (Figure 7.2).

3. (intransitive) To bend too far.
   • 1986, Folk Harp Journal - Issues 52-55, page 22:

     A thicker back will bend less, and be less prone to overbow and the resultant cracking.

4. (transitive) To overburden.
   • 1849, William Ellis, James Backhouse, The Life and Correspondence of William and Alice Ellis, page 11:

     Now the next thing that I have to remind thee of is this, that thou take care of thyself: first of thy mind, that thou do not overbow it; and that thou take care of thy body, that thou do not overwork thyself: it will be enough that thou see the work done.

   • 1908, Aeschylus, “The Seven Against Thebes”, in Four Plays of Aeschylus, Translated into English Verse by E.D.A. Morshead, M.A., page 123:

     'Tis true: yet stronger is the power divine, And oft, when man's estate is overbowed With bitter pangs, disperses from his eyne The heavy, hanging cloud!

   • 1909 January, Will Levington Comfort, “The Woman Who Loved Much”, in Ainslee's, volume 22, number 6, page 6:

     You are so braced and buttressed and overbowed with slave-driving conventions that you were uncomfortable when I took them away —like a poor creature who has worn tight stays so long that she is jelly that won't jell without them !

   • 1915, Elizabeth Gibson, “With Clouds”, in London, page 23:

     Not a looming cloud, But may the King's majestic chariot be, That brings Him nigh, when we are overbowed, To dwell with you, O friend, to dwell with me!

5. (archery, transitive) To provide (an archer) with a bow that requires more strength than the archer can fully draw.
   • 1963, Arnold Otto Haugen, Harland G. Metcalf, Field Archery and Bowhunting, page 12:

     Another characteristic of an "overbowed" archer can readily be observed by watching the alignment of his back while he is shooting.

   • 2016, Ron Rohrbaugh Jr, A Traditional Bowhunter's Path, page 23:

     I know you've heard it before, but no advice on bow selection or shooting would be complete without saying it: Don't “overbow” yourself! Start with a light- to moderate-weight bow and work up if you feel the need to be shooting something heavier.

   • 2007, Dan Bertalan, The Traditional Bowyers Encyclopedia:

     I don't want to overbow a customer because if I do, they're going to get turned off to traditional archery.

   • 2023, Ben Hastings, The Intermediate Archer:

     Don't be tempted to overbow yourself — to use limbs that are too heavy for you.

6. (archery, intransitive) To use a bow that requires more strength than the archer can fully draw.
   • 1940, Ye Sylvan Archer - Volumes 12-15, page 4:

     The tendency of all archers is to overbow.

   • 2011, Erik Roth, With a Bended Bow: Archery in Mediaeval and Renaissance Europe:

     The most important rule for anyone thinking of making a bow is not to overbow or underbow. The bow at full draw should be just at the limit of the shooter's strength.

7. To use too much pressure when playing a stringed instrument using a bow.
   • 1992, American Record Guide - Volume 55, Issues 1-3, page 95:

     The VPO seems so caught up with Bernstein's febrile vision that it overblows and overbows and overbangs frequently.

   • 2001, Journal of the Audio Engineering Society - Volume 49, page 60:

     String players should have an unobstructed two meters above them so that they can hear a strong 4th harmonic and not overbow.

   • 2009, Hearing Loss in Musicians: Prevention and Management, page 33:

     It can also lead to arm and wrist strain, as in the example of the violinist who, in order to compensate for his hearing loss, may bow harder or “overbow” (Chasin, 1996).

Noun

overbow (plural overbows)

1. A structural piece that arches over another piece.
   • 1976, “Age-Forming Aluminum Panels”, in NASA Tech Briefs:

     The overbow formers are then lowered out of the net contour, exposing fixed net contour ( inner mold line ) formers.

Etymology 2

From over- +‎ bow. (This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌəʊvə(ɹ)ˈbaʊ/
• Hyphenation: over‧bow

Adjective

overbow (not comparable)

1. Extending beyond the bow (front of a ship)
   • 1977, Australasian Oil and Gas Journal - Volume 23, page 18:

     It has a lifting capacity of 2000 short tons with fixed boom in overbow position.

   • 1978, Offshore Services - Volume 11, page 41:

     MIBSPA claims that every type of offshore system can utilise the MIB coupling including submerged and floating hoses, overbow and integration into a specific manufacturer's system.

Etymology 3

From over- +‎ bow. (This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌəʊvə(ɹ)ˈbaʊ/
• Hyphenation: over‧bow

Verb

overbow (third-person singular simple present overbows, present participle overbowing, simple past and past participle overbowed)

1. (transitive) To show excessive deference toward by too much bowing.
   • 1910, Marguerite Cunliffe-Owen, Snow-fire: A Story of the Russian Court, page 313:

     Russian officers, especially titled ones, and their families, are naturally exempt from such ignominious treatment, and Alain's small party—all excepting Lustrac, of course, who had at once to go and interview the highest authorities present, so as to spare the touch of ill-bred fingers to Sacha's dainty robes and laces—were bowed and rebowed, and in fact quite overbowed, into the aforesaid room, where the ruddiness of a generous fire showed between the half-open brass doors of the gigantic and home-like porcelain stove, and a basket overflowing with enormous Russian violets filled the middle of the well-set table.