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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
overarching
adjective
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Productivity and efficiency are overarching concerns at the factory.
▪ the overarching sky
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ But this indeterminacy should not, and ultimately can not, be hidden or brought together under a single overarching account.
▪ Globalization has been characterized as the overarching global political process.
▪ Globalization is the overarching process, linked in different ways to both integration and fragmentation.
▪ Many historians prefer of course the overarching pattern.
▪ On the debit side, he frustratingly falls short of any overarching analysis.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
overarching

overarching \o`ver*arch"ing\, a.

  1. Forming an arch (over something).

  2. Dominating or overshadowing all other considerations.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
overarching

1720, from present participle of verb overarch (1660s), from over- + arch (v.).

Wiktionary
overarching
  1. 1 That forms an overhead arch 2 (context by extension English) all-embracing or overwhelming v

  2. (present participle of overarch English)

Usage examples of "overarching".

The twelve children, following the tall adult down the path among the overarching trees, hurried.

A haze of old smoke snaked heavily through the space beneath the overarching dome, disturbed perhaps by the vibrations of their movements and the introduction of the air from the world above.

Great Basilica in Sepulvarta was the centerpiece of the city, with towering walls of polished marble and an overarching dome that was taller than any in the known world.

This overarching framework has provisionally been called M-theory, for reasons that will become clear as we proceed.

It was all corporate land here, manicured to expensive perfection in front of the identical blocks of flats and houses bought from the same prefab supplier, allowed to go to an approximation of wilderness in the ditch that separated the access road from the feeder and the overarching flyway.

He could see that something in his tone, the overarching sadness, had registered with his son.

The waitingmaids, who have escorted me to the door, fall on all fours as a final salute, and remain prostrate on the threshold as long as I am still in sight down the dark pathway, where the rain trickles off the great overarching bracken upon my head.

Law of the Cyclone which he surprised in darkness and cold at the foot of the overarching throne of the Aurora Borealis.

Of such, when death oppressed the weary soul, Was as a green and overarching bower Lit by the gems of many a starry flower.

With overarching elms and caverns cold, And violet banks where sweet dreams brood, but they Pursued their serious folly as of old.

It was a lonely way between the two dwellings, with ancient forest trees overarching the path.

Framing the valley, hills climbed, dark with trees, while beyond them rose the high peaks, their perpetual snow gleaming a faint silver in the light from the overarching stars.

Now he began to wonder whether it might in fact be the other way around, and the trees actually some darker, closer part of this overarching brilliance that hurt his eyes.

The trail widened as he went along, broadening as it reached a place where giant old trees grew tall, clearing all other trees from beneath their overarching limbs: huge old chestnuts, oaks, and hickories.

We went down a zigzag trail under overarching, matted jungle, where great butterflies drifted by in the silence.