overblow

verb

transitive verb

1

: to dissipate by or as if by wind : blow away

2

: to cover (as with snow) by blowing or being blown

3

: to blow (a pipe or other wind instrument) so vigorously as to evoke undesirable overtones that sometimes completely mask the fundamental tone

4

: to continue to blow in a converter after the impurities have been removed (as carbon from iron or sulfur from copper) completely or below a proper percentage

5

a

: distend, swell

whom stout and high living have much overblow

—Donagh MacDonagh

b

: to puff up to inflated proportions : give a false pathos or bombastic or flamboyant quality to

would have been easy to overblow the story

—C. W. Morton

intransitive verb

1

of the wind, archaic : to blow too hard to allow light sails (as topsails) to be carried

2

: to force wind into a wind musical instrument in such a way as to change its pitch typically producing an overtone instead of its fundamental tone

Word History

Etymology

Middle English overblowen, from over entry 1 + blowen to blow

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