How to Use overtop in a Sentence

overtop

verb

• In the case of Galveston, the storm surge from Hurricane Ike overtopped parts of the sea wall in 2008.
  — Time, 29 June 2023
• Lake water would overtop its gates and race into the city, and beyond.
  — New York Times, 17 May 2020
• At the current forecast, water will near the west end bridge approach to FM 1485 and may overtop the roadway.
  — From Community Reports, Houston Chronicle, 30 Mar. 2018
• This space once was an odd little closet off the living room overtop the stairwell.
  — Taylor Mead, House Beautiful, 3 Aug. 2018
• There’s something about Dounia’s cool couplets overtop a slow step-soul beat that feel crisp and salty.
  — Claire Dodson, Teen Vogue, 20 June 2019
• Once the embankments have been overtopped, the seawater can’t flow out again.
  — Mahadi Al Hasnat, Vox, 30 May 2024
• The sea wall in Scituate, Mass., is already being overtopped by waves as the first high tide of the storm rolls in.
  — Angela Fritz, Washington Post, 3 Mar. 2018
• The number could rise to as many as 2,945 dead if levees broke before being overtopped.
  — Mark Schleifstein, NOLA.com, 22 May 2018
• The Department of Water Resources says the lake is likely to rise right to the top, but that there is no risk of the dam itself overtopping.
  — Paul Rogers, The Mercury News, 10 Feb. 2017
• Dockside, floodwaters overtop the concrete piers, shorting power hookups to the mighty ships that are docked in the world’s largest naval base.
  — Laura Parker, National Geographic, 7 Feb. 2017
• The fear was that the waterways would overtop the levees built to protect the community.
  — Kurtis Alexander, San Francisco Chronicle, 4 Jan. 2023
• Sandy’s unprecedented 16-foot surge overtopped the roads and poured into homes.
  — Nathalie Baptiste, Slate Magazine, 30 Oct. 2017
• Barry’s waters overtopped the Montegut and Dularge levees, though none of them were breached.
  — Meghan Overdeep, Southern Living, 15 July 2019
• But a levee in Terrebonne Parish was overtopped by water for part of the day, officials said.
  — Fox News, 14 July 2019
• Dams that are small and located in rural areas may cause less damage if they are overtopped or fail.
  — Hiba Baroud, Discover Magazine, 27 June 2024
• Officials released water from those reservoirs to ease the pressure, but at least one of the reservoirs still overtopped its banks.
  — Alaska Dispatch News, 30 Aug. 2017
• Murphy said that if conditions remain dry, the sill will most likely be overtopped again.
  — Denise Chow, NBC News, 26 Sep. 2023
• Some of them, like Lock and Dam 4 in Alma, closed because the water has overtopped the lock chamber where boats typically pass through, Moes said.
  — Madeline Heim and Brittney J. Miller, Journal Sentinel, 27 Apr. 2023
• Record flooding early last year and in the summer overtopped and breached dozens of levees along the Missouri and Mississippi rivers.
  — USA TODAY, 3 Jan. 2020
• The potential for disaster is greater when a levee is overtopped—or worse, breached—by tidal Lake Pontchartrain or the river, which bookend the city.
  — The Economist, 26 July 2019
• The lake had been drained for agriculture more than a century earlier, but the pounding rain overtopped rivers and burst through levees to fill it once again.
  — Hayley Smith, Los Angeles Times, 25 Oct. 2023
• Some debris basins were in place, but they were quickly overtopped by the hundreds of thousands of cubic yards of water and sediment.
  — Lee MacDonald, Washington Post, 20 Jan. 2018
• In a 200-year event, levees throughout the New Orleans area would be overtopped, Needham's assessment said.
  — Mark Schleifstein, NOLA.com, 22 May 2018
• Those surge levels will not be enough to overtop hurricane levees in New Orleans.
  — Ramon Antonio Vargas | Staff Writer, NOLA.com, 22 Aug. 2020
• During Floyd, dozens of these lagoons either breached or were overtopped by floodwaters, spilling the contents.
  — Michael Biesecker, Fox News, 12 Sep. 2018
• Their muffins overtopped the baking tins in a mushroom cloud shape and were not only spectacular to look at, but delicious.
  — Chronicle Staff, San Francisco Chronicle, 19 Mar. 2018
• As the Missouri, the Mississippi and other rivers reached record heights, dozens of levees put in place to protect residents were breached or overtopped.
  — Thomas Frank, Scientific American, 30 Dec. 2019
• But that will depend on how fast the waters recede and, in some places where water levels overtopped lock structures, whether any repair of the structures are needed.
  — Madeline Heim, Journal Sentinel, 2 May 2023
• In Gentilly, the Peoples Avenue Canal may have been temporarily overtopped, the city said, but there were no breaches.
  — Bob Warren, NOLA.com, 5 Aug. 2017
• Residents of a Illinois city were evacuated after a dam overtopped.
  — Nicole Fallert, USA TODAY, 17 July 2024

Last Updated: 17 Nov 2024