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The Collaborative International Dictionary
Overblow

Overblow \O`ver*blow"\, v. i.

  1. To blow over, or be subdued. [R.]
    --Spenser.

  2. (Mus.) To force so much wind into a pipe that it produces an overtone, or a note higher than the natural note; thus, the upper octaves of a flute are produced by overblowing.

Overblow

Overblow \O`ver*blow"\, v. t.

  1. To blow away; to dissipate by wind, or as by wind.

    When this cloud of sorrow's overblown.
    --Waller.

  2. To ascribe an unwarranted importance to.

  3. (Music) To blow into (a wind instrument) too strongly, so as to produce predominantly overtones.

Wiktionary
overblow

Etymology 1 vb. (context transitive English) To cover with blossoms or flowers. Etymology 2

vb. 1 (context intransitive obsolete English) To blow over; pass over; pass away. 2 (context intransitive English) To blow hard or with much violence. 3 (context transitive English) To blow over or across. 4 (context transitive English) To blow away; dissipate by or as by wind. 5 (context transitive English) To exaggerate the significance of something. 6 (context transitive music English) To blow a wind instrument hard to produce a higher pitch than usual.

Usage examples of "overblow".

The Straken Lord had an overblown opinion of what it could expect of her if it thought anything would change that, and she had no idea what fueled it.

After it was allover and C-12 was walking away with her, I was no longer under the influence and I could see there was something hard and overblown about her--a kind of unlovely and predatory gleam in her eye.

Mouw also learned that the serious, potentially bloody rivalry supposed by conventional wisdom to exist between Neil Dellacroce and Paul Castellano was very much overblown, if it existed at all.

Looking up, he saw the air above the mountains streaked in peach and apricot, a phenomenal, overblown sunset such as Rudy had previously associated with the tackier variety of cowboy painters or photographs in inspirational magazines.

She was running just a tad toward overblown but there was somthing quite attractive about the severe way she kept it in check.

Since it was the highly estimable Eastern Steamship Line running daily up the coast from Boston to Bangor, the brochure avoided such harsh terms in favor of the overblown moniker third-class lounge.

She loathed their pretension, and the overblown, blushy-frilly look of them: full sleeves to flutter artistically in the wind, great floppy foolish collars .

I'm not that drunken woman, honey, that grand overblown Hollywood cliché of a woman, you don't have to take care of me, I will take care of us both.

I think the notion probably originated with Enasian, since the Mimbrates have always been addicted to epic poetry and its overblown conventions.

Hell, I was so far gone I loved you when you were just an overblown, brainless, arrogant prick of a clotheshorse and I damned well should have known better!

Overblown fangs, sickle-shaped like inverted question marks extended from the front of the bug in an almost comical display of exaggeration.

Madeleine made out kangaroolike creatures of all sizes—bizarre, overblown animals, some so huge it seemed they could barely lift themselves off the ground.

Coloring the sheets and dividing the room had been great fun at the time, but it seemed stupid and kiddish to her now, and the way her overblown shadow danced on the center sheet was actually scary.

He bade a silent and somewhat overblown goodbye to the shimmering field of grass, the tiny, nearly dry creek, and his favorite privet hedge.