overlive
English edit
Etymology edit
From Middle English overliven, from Old English oferlibban (“to survive”), equivalent to over- + live. Cognate with Dutch overleven (“to survive”), German überleben (“to survive, outlive”), Swedish överleva (“to survive, outlive, outlast”).
Pronunciation edit
Verb edit
overlive (third-person singular simple present overlives, present participle overliving, simple past and past participle overlived)
- (transitive) To survive; to live past.
- (transitive) To outlive; live longer than.
- 1624, John Donne, Meditation VII:
- [M]y disease cannot survive me, I may overlive it.
- 1891, Charlotte M. Yonge, chapter 31, in Unknown to History: A Story of the Captivity of Mary of Scotland:
- "Her Majesty's life will never be safe for a moment while she lives; and what would become of us all did she overlive the Queen!"
- (intransitive) To live too long.
- 1667, John Milton, “(please specify the book number)”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
- Why do I overlive?
Why am I mocked with death, and lengthened out
to deathless pain?
- 1909, “"How Can He Do It?"”, in Notions and Fancy Goods, volume 43, page 30:
- The misguided youngsters are yachting, attending the races, playing the "stage Johnny," automobiling, playing poker for high stakes, overliving at home, on expensive shopping tours, attending box parties to the theatre, visiting high-priced restaurants, etc., etc.
- (intransitive) To live too fast, too luxuriously, or too actively.
Derived terms edit
References edit
Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “overlive”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)