overmastering

verb

1. (form-of, gerund, participle, present)present participle and gerund of overmaster

adj

1. Which overmasters; dominating, oppressive, conquering.

   “Their overmastering fear of witchcraft”

   “Yet from my very earliest consciousness I sensed with savage unswerving certainty that other people were not seized by the same rapacious greed, insatiable hunger, overmastering desire, shivering lust and terrible, hurting need that had me in its grip almost every hour of every day.”