| / English Dictionary |
OVERSHADOW
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (verb)
Verb forms
Present simple: I / you / we / they overshadow ... he / she / it overshadows
Past simple: overshadowed
Past participle: overshadowed
-ing form: overshadowing
Sense 1
Meaning:
Cast a shadow upon
Example:
The tall tree overshadowed the house
Classified under:
Verbs of seeing, hearing, feeling
Hypernyms (to "overshadow" is one way to...):
becloud; befog; cloud; fog; haze over; mist; obnubilate; obscure (make less visible or unclear)
Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "overshadow"):
eclipse; occult (cause an eclipse of (a celestial body) by intervention)
Sentence frame:
Something ----s something
Sense 2
Meaning:
Make appear small by comparison
Example:
This year's debt dwarfs that of last year
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Verbs of being, having, spatial relations
Hypernyms (to "overshadow" is one way to...):
command; dominate; overlook; overtop (look down on)
Sentence frame:
Something ----s something
Sense 3
Meaning:
Be greater in significance than
Example:
the tragedy overshadowed the couple's happiness
Synonyms:
dominate; eclipse; overshadow
Classified under:
Verbs of being, having, spatial relations
Hypernyms (to "overshadow" is one way to...):
brood; bulk large; hover; loom (hang over, as of something threatening, dark, or menacing)
Sentence frame:
Something ----s something
Context examples:
Both became overshadowed by a new and indefinable horror; and when I awoke—or rather when I shook off the lethargy that bound me in my chair—my whole frame thrilled with objectless and unintelligible fear.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
And now vegetation matured with vigour; Lowood shook loose its tresses; it became all green, all flowery; its great elm, ash, and oak skeletons were restored to majestic life; woodland plants sprang up profusely in its recesses; unnumbered varieties of moss filled its hollows, and it made a strange ground-sunshine out of the wealth of its wild primrose plants: I have seen their pale gold gleam in overshadowed spots like scatterings of the sweetest lustre.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
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