English Reference
Adjective

overgrown

adj.
B2 Upper Intermediate US /ˌoʊvɝˈɡɹoʊn/ UK /ˌəʊvəɡɹˈəʊn/ over·grown

adj.covered with too many plants or weeds because nobody has looked after it. You use this to describe a garden or building that looks wild and messy.

adj.covered with plants or weeds that have grown in an uncontrolled way. Often used to describe neglected land or structures; functions as a participial adjective.


SIMPLE

The old garden is completely overgrown with weeds.

CONTEXTUAL

The path to the abandoned cottage was so overgrown that we had to push through thick bushes to reach the door.

COMPLEX

Decades of neglect had left the estate's formal gardens entirely overgrown, with ivy strangling the stone statues and wild grass obscuring the original gravel walkways.

Usage

Typically used as a predicative adjective after 'is' or 'has become', or as an attributive adjective before a noun.

His protests are surely the actions of an overgrown schoolboy, a man who knows nothing of responsibility, who is simply not realistic.

The Guardian· 20 Aug 2026

The most overgrown of all, what was once Camp 4, we reached by gunning the ATV off-track through the undergrowth.

Smithsonian Magazine· 10 Jun 2026

From over- + grown.

Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This entry
Level B2 · Upper Intermediate
Frequency Occasional
Updated