overread

English

Etymology

From Middle English overreden, from Old English oferrǣdan (“to read over; read through; consider”), equivalent to over- +‎ read.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /əʊvəˈɹiːd/

Verb

overread (third-person singular simple present overreads, present participle overreading, simple past and past participle overread)

1. (obsolete) To read over, or peruse. [10th-19th c.]
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.11:

     Over the dore thus written she did spye, / Bee bold: she oft and oft it over-red, / Yet could not find what sence it figured […].

2. (transitive) To interpret something to a greater degree, or in a more positive way, than appropriate; read too in-depth; overinterpret; overanalyze.
   • 2005, Hilde Heynen, ‎Gulsum Baydar, Negotiating Domesticity:

     To overread Plath's houses is to transform these biographical documents into spatial ones.

   • 2008, H. Porter Abbott, The Cambridge Introduction to Narrative:

     At the same time, we overread. That is, we find in narratives qualities, motives, moods, ideas, judgments, even events for which there is no direct evidence in the discourse.
3. To read too much or excessively.

Antonyms

• underread

Adjective

overread (comparative more overread, superlative most overread)

1. Having read too much.

Anagrams

• overdare, overdear