overencourage

verb

over·​en·​cour·​age ˌō-vər-in-ˈkər-ij 

-ˈkə-rij,

-en-

overencouraged; overencouraging

transitive verb

: to encourage (someone or something) to an extreme or excessive degree

At this point it is critical for teachers not to overencourage the students or to simplify the task. Students must discover on their own that if they start to think, they can in fact solve the task.

—Stanley Pogrow and Gary Londer

The favorable climate for business start-ups encourages new technologies and, indeed, overencouraged them in the late 1990s.

—Hans-Peter Blossfeld et al.

Word History

First Known Use

1768, in the meaning defined above