ENGLISH
REFERENCE

overflowing

adj.
B2 Upper Intermediate US //ˈoʊvɝˌfɫoʊɪŋ// UK //ˌəʊvəflˈəʊɪŋ// over·flow·ing

adj. so full of something that it is spilling over the edges. You use this when a container or a space cannot hold any more.

adj. containing more than can be held; spilling over the brim or boundaries. Often used as a participial adjective to describe physical containers or figurative states like emotions.


SIMPLE

The kitchen bin is overflowing with trash.

CONTEXTUAL

After the heavy rain, the river was overflowing its banks and flooding the nearby fields.

COMPLEX

The professor's desk was a chaotic landscape of overflowing folders and loose manuscripts, suggesting a mind far more concerned with research than with administrative order.

Synonyms
Origin

From overflow + -ing

Usage

Often used predicatively after 'be' or 'seem', or attributively before a noun. Frequently takes the preposition 'with' when describing the contents.

Pitfall

The cup was overflowed with waterThe cup was overflowing with waterLearners often use the past participle 'overflowed' when they mean the continuous state 'overflowing' to describe a full container.

Idioms1 entry

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