English edit

Etymology edit

over- +‎ signal

Verb edit

oversignal (third-person singular simple present oversignals, present participle oversignaling or oversignalling, simple past and past participle oversignaled or oversignalled)

  1. To signal excessively.
    • 1997, American Economic Association, Papers and Proceedings of the Annual Meeting:
      Thus an employer who truly plans to stay around may have to "oversignal" with incentive systems that are too expensive for those who plan to cut and run []
    • 2009, Debra Hawhee, Moving Bodies: Kenneth Burke at the Edges of Language, page 25:
      By invoking the metaphor of a semaphore, Burke marks the ability of an operatic performance to signal strongly — even to oversignal — and to do so in a stiff, exaggerated way, as with flags on sticks.

Anagrams edit