overset

verb

1. (transitive)To knock over or overturn (someone or something); to capsize, to upset.

   “For ſtill thy eyes, vvhich I may call the ſea, / Do ebbe and flovve vvith teares, the Barke thy body is: / Sayling in this ſalt floud, the vvindes thy ſighes, / Who raging vvith thy teares and they vvith them, / VVithout a ſudden calme vvill ouerſet / Thy tempeſt toſſed body.”

   “A great ſhip overſet, or vvithout faile / Hulling, might (vvhen this vvas a vvhelp) be like this vvhale.”

   “Up, and with W. Hewer by hackney coach to White Hall, where the King and Duke of York is gone by three in the morning, and had the misfortune to be overset with the Duke of York, the Duke of Monmouth, and the Prince, at the King's Gate in Holborne; and the King all dirty, but no hurt.”

   “VVe therefore truſted our ſelves to the Mercy of the VVaves, and in about half an hour the Boat vvas over-ſet by a ſudden Flurry from the North.”

   “[T]he poſtilion, in turning too ſuddenly from the turnpike to the croſs-road, overſet the carriage.”

2. (figuratively, transitive)To physically or mentally disturb (someone); to upset; specifically, to make (someone) ill, especially nauseous; to nauseate, to sicken.

   “O Lord, O Lord, ſhe's mad, poor Young VVoman, Love has turn'd her ſenſes, her Brain is quite overſet.”

   “He us’d all the Caution that he vvas able in letting me knovv a thing, vvhich it vvould have been a double Cruelty to have conceal’d; and yet it vvas too much for me; for as Grief had overſet me before, ſo did Joy overſet novv, and I fell into a much more dangerous Svvooning than I did at firſt, and it vvas not vvithout a great Difficulty that I vvas recover'd at all.”

   “"Poor little tender-heart," said Ham, in a low voice. "Martha has overset her, altogether."”

   “A thunderstorm is coming on, the maids say, and the hot and stifling air has overset the pretty dear; no wonder; they have felt their own knees all of a tremble all day long.”

3. (figuratively, transitive)To throw (something, such as an organization, a plan, etc.) into confusion or out of order; to subvert, to unsettle, to upset.

   “[H]ad not the old Man run and fetch'd me a Cordial, I believe the ſudden Surprize of Joy had overſet Nature, and I had dy'd upon the Spot.”

   “[B]y ſtriving to ſupport that chimerical Prerogative [papal infallibility], he [Robert Bellarmine] evidently overſetteth it.”

   “Amidſt the calm produced by the treaty an event took place vvhich had nearly overſet the vvhole negotiation.”

   “[A] certain Calypso-Island detains him at the very outset; and as it were falsifies and oversets his whole reckoning.”

   “Thus has the Tailor-art, so to speak, overset itself, like most other things; changed its centre-of-gravity; whirled suddenly over from zenith to nadir.”

4. (figuratively, rare, transitive)To translate (a text).

   “Overset into English, after the spirits and measures of the authentical; by Dr. Heinrich Krauss, Ph.D., and so wider.”

   “[T]he preparation for a world-literature must surely lie in the study of those methods of thought, those canons of literary art, which lie at the foundation of all literatures. The thought and its expression,—these are the two factors which must solve the problem; and it matters not how much we translate—or overset, as the Germans felicitously say—so long as we go no deeper and do not grasp at what all literatures have in common.”

5. (figuratively, transitive)To set (copy or type) in excess of a given space.

   “Other [newspaper] articles, again, are rejected because there is no time to consider them, or because they are badly written, and the printers have no time to lose in bungling over hieroglyphics. The overseer now sees that he will have too much matter; and although all the week he has been declaring that he has been kept short of copy, now goes on the opposite tack, to avoid upsetting, or, as he says, "oversetting."”

6. (Scotland, figuratively, transitive)To recover from (an illness).
7. (obsolete, transitive)To cover (the surface of something) with objects.

   “Item, the bishop's great mitre, all oversett with orient pearle and stones, and silver ourgilt, the haill mitre extending to 5 pound 15 ounce weight.”

8. (obsolete, transitive)To oppress or overwhelm (someone, their thoughts, etc.); to beset; also, to overpower or overthrow (someone, an army, a people, etc.) by force; to defeat, to overwhelm.

   “[…] Brennus [i.e., Brennius] entending to haue more lande or all, aroſe againſt his brother Belyne [Belinus], and made vpon him ſharpe and mortall warre. In the which warre Brennus was ouerſet and compelled to flie the lande, and to ſayle to Armorica, nowe named little Briteyn, […]”

   “At laſt being over ſet vvith multitudes (vvhich hath beene the fortune of the braveſt ſpirits upon earth) they choſe to bovv a little, rather than breake.”

   “[…] There is alſo the vvilfully ignorant profeſſor, or him that is afraid to knovv more, for fear of the croſs; he is for picking and chuſing of truth, and loveth not to hazzard his all for that vvorthy name by vvhich he vvould be called: vvhen he is at any time overſet by arguments, or avvaknings of conſcience, he uſes to heal all, by, I vvas not brought up in this faith, as if it vvere unlavvful for Chriſtians to knovv more then hath been taught them at firſt converſion, […]”

   “[T]hat would be a delightful scheme indeed, and completely do for us at once. Good Heaven! Brighton, and a whole campful of soldiers, to us, who have been overset already by one poor regiment of militia, and the monthly balls of Meryton!”

9. (obsolete, transitive)To press (something) down heavily; to compress; also, to choke (a plant).

   “[T]he more they [holy plants] vvere oppreſsd and overſet vvith the vveight of Perſecution, the faſter, ſtronger, and ſtreighter they grevv up.”

10. (obsolete, transitive)To put too heavy a load on (something); to overload.

    “[C]oming (for more frugality) in the common Boat, vvhich vvas overſet vvith Merchandize, and other Paſſengers, in a thick fog, the Veſſel turn'd over, and ſo many periſh'd, the Prince Palſgrave ſav'd himſelf by ſvvimming, but the young Prince clinging to the Maſt, and being entangled among the Tacklings, vvas half drovvn'd and half frozen to death: A ſad Deſtiny.”

11. (obsolete, rare, transitive)To come to rest over (something); to settle.

    “It [tobacco] is a good Companion to one that converſeth vvith dead Men [i.e., reads books], for if one hath been poring long upon a Book, or is toil'd vvith the Pen, and ſtupified vvith Study, it quickneth him, and diſpels thoſe Clouds that uſually o'erſet the Brain.”

12. (figuratively, obsolete, rare, transitive)To impose too heavy a tax on (someone); to overtax.

    “For thieves love among themselves: and so do the covetous of the world, as the usurers and publicans, which brought in great the emperor's tribute, and to make their most advantage, did overset the people.”

13. (obsolete, transitive)To recover (money) given in an exchange.

    “[H]e that dealeth in barter muſt be very circumſpect, and the Money giuen in barter cannot be overſet.”

14. (obsolete, transitive)To coil or stow away (a cable, a rope, etc.).
15. (archaic, intransitive)To turn, or to be turned, over; to capsize; to, or to be, upset.

    “[T]his Raft vvas ſo unvveildy, and ſo overloaden, that after I vvas enter'd the little Cove, vvhere I had landed the reſt of my Goods, not being able to guide it ſo handily as I did the other, it overſet, and threvv me and all my Cargoe into the VVater; […]”

    “VVhen all endeavours proved fruitleſs, and no hope of preſerving the ſhip remained, the barge vvas hoiſted out for the preſervation of the admiral, vvho entered it accordingly; but all diſtinction of perſons being novv aboliſhed, the ſeamen ruſhed into it in ſuch crovvds, that in a fevv moments it overſet.”

    “If the pack is well strapped at the ends, and hung at full length—not doubled, for your life—across the pack-saddle, the traveller is safe. The saddle will certainly not fit, such is the imperfection of our transitory life; it will assuredly topple and tend to overset; but there are stones on every roadside, and a man soon learns the art of correcting any tendency to overbalance with a well-adjusted stone.”

16. (intransitive, obsolete)Of a person or thing (such as an organization or plan): to become unbalanced or thrown into confusion; to be put into disarray.

    “But, while kingdoms overset, / Or lapse from hand to hand, / Thy leaf shall never fail, nor yet / Thine acorn in the land.”

adj

1. (not-comparable)Having been overset (verb sense).

   “They groped their way, pushing and panting, to the road again, where, beholding the overset buggy with its wheels ludicrously in the air, they suddenly seized and shook each other, and in an outburst of hilarious ecstasy, fairly laughed until the tears came into their eyes.”

   “A pitiless hail was hissing round me, and I was sitting on soft turf in front of the overset machine.”

   “We had gone but a few paces along the pier when we came upon an old man, who was evidently a watchman, for he sat in an overset barrel, close to a place where masons had lately been working upon a break in the pier, and had in front of him a fire such as one sees slung under tinkers' carts.”

2. (not-comparable)Having been overset (verb sense).

noun

1. (uncountable)Copy or type set in excess of a given space; (countable) an instance of this.
2. (countable, obsolete, uncountable)An act of knocking over or overturning; a capsize or capsizing, an overturning, an upset.

   “[…] I vvas upon the Rock vvhen their Boat vvas daſh'd againſt it, and vvas over-ſet vvith the ſame Sea, under the flat bottom'd Boat, vvhere you found me. That vvas a happy Overſet for thee; vvell, is there no Gratitude due to Providence for thy Eſcape? due to Providence, ſaid he, vvhy, I thought you had ſav'd me?”

3. (countable, obsolete, rare, uncountable)An excess, a surplus.

   “And vvith this overſet of vvealth and pomp, that came on men in the decline of their parts and age, they, vvho vvere novv grovving into old age, became lazy and negligent in all the true concerns of the Church: […]”