overbalance

English

Etymology

From over- +‎ balance.

Pronunciation

• (verb) IPA^(key): /ˌəʊvə(ɹ)ˈbæləns/

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• (noun) IPA^(key): /ˈəʊvə(ɹ)ˌbæləns/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

Verb

overbalance (third-person singular simple present overbalances, present participle overbalancing, simple past and past participle overbalanced)

1. To be more important than; to outweigh. [from 16th c.]
   • 1793, James Boswell, in Danziger & Brady (eds.), Boswell: The Great Biographer (Journals 1789–1795), Yale 1989, p. 225:

     I thought of giving up this club, which was expensive and of no service to me, and the amusement overbalanced by the late hours.

2. (transitive) To cause an imbalance in (something) by means of excess weight or numbers. [from 17th c.]
3. (transitive) To throw (someone or something) off balance; to cause to capsize. [from 19th c.]
4. (intransitive) To lose one's balance; to fall over. [from 19th c.]

Noun

overbalance (plural overbalances)

1. Excess of weight or value; something more than an equivalent.

   an overbalance of exports

   • a. 1758, Jonathan Edwards, Original Sin:

     […] if there is in man's nature a tendency to guilt and ill desert in a vast overbalance to virtue and merit […]