I. | ̷ ̷ ̷ ̷| ̷ ̷ verb
Etymology: Middle English overflowen, from Old English oferflōwan, from ofer, adverb, over + flōwan to flow
transitive verb
1. : to flow over : cover with or as if with water : inundate
the flooded river overflowed the adjacent fields
2. : to flow over the brim of
a river overflowing its banks
3. : to cause to overflow
intransitive verb
1.
a. : to run or flow over bounds
every spring the river overflows
b. : to fill a space to capacity and spread beyond its limits
the crowd overflowed into the street
we can overflow in pleasant weather into my small garden — Eleanor Roosevelt
2.
a. : to become filled to running over
filled his glass till it overflowed
b. : superabound
their soil … overflows with wine and oil — H.T.Buckle
II. ˈ ̷ ̷ ̷ ̷ˌ ̷ ̷ noun
1. : a flowing over (as of water or other fluid) : inundation
2.
a. : something that flows over : surplus , excess
territory into which her teeming human overflow can be siphoned — T.H.Fielding
this year's overflow of applications — Cecile Starr
b. : the peripheral drift of excess population from a protected habitat to other suitable environments
3. : an outlet or a receptacle for surplus liquid
4. : overflow pipe
5.
a. : continuance of the sense or extension of a rhetorical unit from one line into the next : enjambment
b. : continuance of meter from one line into the next so that a foot begun at the end of a line may be completed at the beginning of the next : synaphea
III. adjective
Etymology: overflow (II)
1. : constituting an overflow
overflow population from central New York — American Guide Series: Pennsylvania
overflow patients lie on floors and corridors — Gertrude Samuels
2. : so large as to exceed capacity and overflow
sang before overflow crowds — American Guide Series: Louisiana
a program with an overflow attendance — W.F.Cunningham