overfall
/ˈoʊvɚfɔl/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: 0.00 in modern English
14
Scrabble Score
8
Letters
2
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A turbulent section of a body of water, caused by strong currents passing over submerged ridges.
Example Sentences
- "But her laugh stuck in her throat, for at that moment a shadow overfell the two houses"
- "1 of these ladies was strikingly handsome, with long black hair which overfell her face as she worked."
- "The troll overfell him. A moment he lay under that mass and could not breathe."
- "But you, divine one, you, resounding to the end, when the swarm of rejected Maenads overfell him, you sounded over their screams with order; o beautiful one, out of the destroyers arose your uplifting play."
- "When the tidal surge hits Britain, one arm goes up the west coast and the other goes through the English Channel. The slight time delay in their meeting cause one to overfall the other at certain points in Orkney."
- "From thence King Hakon proceeded up the Dovrefield; but as he was going over the mountains he road all day after a ptarmigan, which flew up beside him , and in this chase a sickness overfell him, which ended in his death ; and he died on the mountains."
Etymology
From Middle English overfallen, from Old English oferfeallan (“to fall upon, attack”), from Proto-West Germanic *obarfallan, *ubirfallan, from Proto-Germanic *ubirfallaną; equivalent to over- + fall. Cognate with Dutch overvallen (“to raid, overtake”), German überfallen (“to assault, attack, raid”), Swedish överfalla (“to attack”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Prefix: over
- Root: overfallen, oferfeallan, *obarfallan, *ubirfallaną
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈoʊvɚfɔl/
- British English: /ˈəʊvəfɔːl/
Usage
Inflected Forms
Derived Forms
Phrases
overfall dam
overfall mill
overfall weir