overflow

The spillage resultant from overflowing.

Noun

  1. The spillage resultant from overflowing.
    • High crests of these overflows were: Manhattan, 23.0 feet, 8.0 above bankful, on June 16–17; Wamego, 20.8 feet, 4.8 feet above bankful, on June 17; Topeka, 26.8 feet, 5.8 feet above bankful, on June 17; […] - 1943,...
  2. An outlet for escape of excess material.
  3. Excess, superabundance
    • GCN: Do you have an overflow of scripts? JG: I have more than we could ever do, certainly. But there's never an overflow of quality, and quality is really hard to come by, real quality. - 1977 February 12, Don Shewey,...
  4. The situation where a value exceeds the available numeric range.

Origin

From Middle English overflowen, from Old English oferflōwan, equivalent to over- + flow.

Forms

overflows

Derived

overflow hole overflow meeting overflow pool

Verb

  1. To flow over the brim of (a container).
    • The river overflowed the levee into the road.
    • Theſe are they that went ouer Ioꝛden in the firſt moneth, when it had ouerflowen all his* bankes, and they put to flight all them of the valleis, both toward the Eaſt, and toward the Weſt. - 1611, The Holy Bible, […]...
    • Locally heavy rains on the 21st caused more than 2 feet of overflow on Salt Creek at Ashland, Nebr., on the 22d. Some county roads were inundated. Mill Creek which flows into the Platte River at Louisville, Nebr.,...

    Synonyms: overrun

  2. To cover with a liquid, literally or figuratively.
    • The flash flood overflowed most of the parkland and some homes.
    • So when they were working that evening at the pumps, there was on this head no small gamesomeness slily going on among them, as they stood with their feet continually overflowed by the rippling clear water […] - 1851,...
  3. To cause an overflow.
  4. To flow over the brim of a container.
    • The waters overflowed into the Ninth Ward.

    Synonyms: brim over overbrim overflood

  5. To be subject to a load that exceeds limits or capacity. [with with]
    • The hospital ER was overflowing with flu cases.

    Synonyms: brim over overbrim

    1. (intransitive, figuratively) To have something in superabundance; to abound in something.

      • I see and feel that I want the first requisite — a heart overflowing with Divine love towards sinners - 1857, Eustace Rogers Conder, Josiah Conder: A Memoir:

      Synonyms: brim over overbrim

  6. To (cause to) exceed the available numeric range.
    • Calculating 255+1 will overflow an eight-bit byte.
    • Some programs, especially online games, tend to have coding problems that leave them with memory holes - in other words, they don't delete information from your PC's memory once they're finished with it, they just keep...

Forms

overflows overflowing overflowed overflown

Derived

buffer overflow full to overflowing overflowable overflower underflow