overwinter

verb

1. (transitive)To keep or preserve for the winter.

   “It is best to overwinter tender plants indoors.”

   “Well, if you're fortunate, you'll be able to overwinter your bees and keep them alive during the winter months.”

   “We overwinter our blueberry bushes in an unheated greenhouse, but when re-tubbed this year they will be too big to move. What are their chances of surviving winter outside?”

2. (intransitive)To spend the winter (in a particular place).

   “Insects may overwinter in fallen fruit if it is not removed.”

   “Fish only overwinter in streams having a sufficient source of groundwater.”

   “Different insects also differ in the way in which they overwinter. Most insects overwinter as eggs or pupae, but others overwinter as larvae or nymphs, whilst quite a few hibernate in the adult phase.”

   “'Early Purple Sprouting' broccoli is so hardy you can let it overwinter and it rewards you with—yes, you guessed it—early purple sprouts that are tender and delicious.”

adj

1. (not-comparable)Occurring over the winter season.

   “The effect of seedling size on overwinter injury was analyzed separately by analysis of covariance.”

   “Overwinter survival ranged from 0% to 100% and increased with increasing fall total length and winter temperatures among all cohorts and reservoirs.”

adv

1. (not-comparable)During the winter.

   “Ground cover of perennial grasses declined seriously under plots covered overwinter with dead thistle plants.”

   “Moreover, each year of continuous corn cropping the corn stover would be turned under by fall plowing in preparation for the next spring planting, leaving the land bare overwinter.”

   “The copepod Thermocyclops oithonoides rests overwinter as copepodids in lake mud in the Mugglesee and other lakes in Europe.”