The Collaborative International Dictionary
Overrun \O`ver*run"\, v. t. [imp. Overran; p. p. Overrun; p. pr. & vb. n. Overrunning. ]
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To run over; to grow or spread over in excess; to invade and occupy; to take possession of; as, the vine overran its trellis; the farm is overrun with witch grass.
Those barbarous nations that overran the world.
--Spenser. -
To exceed in distance or speed of running; to go beyond or pass in running.
Ahimaaz ran by the way of the plain, and overran Cushi.
--2 Sam. xviii. 2 -
3. To go beyond; to extend in part beyond; as, one line overruns another in length.
Note: In machinery, a sliding piece is said to overrun its bearing when its forward end goes beyond it.
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To abuse or oppress, as if by treading upon.
None of them the feeble overran.
--Spenser. -
(Print.)
To carry over, or back, as type, from one line or page into the next after, or next before.
To extend the contents of (a line, column, or page) into the next line, column, or page.
Wiktionary
vb. (present participle of overrun English)
WordNet
adj. (often followed by `with' or used in combination) troubled by or encroached upon in large numbers; "waters infested with sharks"; "shark-infested waters"; "the locust-overrun countryside"; "drug-plagued streets" [syn: infested, plagued]
n. too much production or more than expected [syn: overproduction]
v. invade in great numbers; "the roaches infested our kitchen" [syn: infest]
occupy in large numbers or live on a host; "the Kudzu plant infests much of the South and is spreading to the North" [syn: invade, infest]
flow or run over (a limit or brim) [syn: overflow, well over, run over, brim over]
seize the position of and defeat; "the Crusaders overran much of the Holy Land"
run beyond or past; "The plane overran the runway"
[also: overrunning, overran]
See overrun
Usage examples of "overrunning".
And that would be a more serious matter than overrunning an Italy taken by surprise and abandoned by its Axis allies.
Turkey, once defended by air power, would have the means perhaps of deterring Germany from overrunning Bulgaria and quelling Greece, and of counterbalancing the Russian fear of the German armies.
We could not expect any further large windfalls of vessels such as those which had followed the overrunning of Norway, Denmark, and the Low Countries in the spring of 1940.
Mussolini-Hitler crime of overrunning Greece, and our effort to stand against tyranny and save what we could from its claws, appealed profoundly to the people of the United States, and above all to the great man who led them.
The manner in which the German troop concentrations in Rumania and Bulgaria had been glozed over and apparently accepted by the Soviet Government, the evidence we had of large and invaluable supplies being sent to Germany from Russia, the obvious community of interest between the two countries in overrunning and dividing the British Empire in the East, all made it seem more likely that Hitler and Stalin would make a bargain at our expense rather than a war upon each other.
After that, Kurdish resistance largely collapsed and Republican Guard task forces were able to push out along the main roads quickly and without significant casualties, overrunning even the distant city of as-Sulaymaniyyah in northeastern Iraq just a few days later.
During the night of August 31, the Iraqis struck, overrunning Arbil in a few hours with the help of KDP forces.
A force of four to six divisions along with a couple of ACRs and extra aviation brigades should have little difficulty overrunning the Iraqi armed forces and conquering the country, but it never hurts to be certain, and in this situation we need to be certain.
If not, how could the Allies prevent the German Army from quickly overrunning Poland?
But more important than that, Stalin still afforded him the opportunity of fighting a one-front war, of concentrating all his military might in the west for a knockout blow against France and Britain and the overrunning of Belgium and Holland, after which - well, Hitler had already told his generals what he had in mind.
Hitler and his lieutenants began to clutch at a straw of hope: that the Allies would fall out, that Britain and America would become frightened of the prospect of the Red armies overrunning Europe and in the end join Germany to protect the old Continent from Bolshevism.
A peace now would also prevent the Russians from overrunning Germany and Bolshevizing it.
Third Army, after overrunning the Saar-Palatinate triangle in a brilliant operation carried out in conjunction with the U.
Alpinadorans that the only thing that had kept the fierce and prolific goblins from overrunning the entire northland was their inability to band together.
The stream of lava swelled like a river about to overflow its banks, and threatened to demolish the sole obstacle which could prevent it from overrunning the whole Far West.