overcast

From Middle English overcasten, equivalent to over- +‎ cast. Compare Swedish överkast.

Adjective and noun

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: ōʹvə-käst', IPA^(key): /ˈəʊvəˌkɑːst/

  • Audio (UK):

    (file)

• (General American) enPR: ōʹvər-kăst', IPA^(key): /ˈoʊvɚ.kæst/

Verb

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: ō'və-kästʹ, IPA^(key): /ˌəʊvəˈkɑːst/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (General American) enPR: ō'vər-kăstʹ, IPA^(key): /ˌoʊvɚˈkæst/
• Rhymes: -ɑːst

overcast (plural overcasts)

1. A cloud covering all of the sky from horizon to horizon.
2. (obsolete) An outcast.
3. (mining) A place where one roadway crosses another, specifically where an airway was built across the top of another airway for ventilation purposes.

overcast (comparative more overcast, superlative most overcast)

1. Covered with clouds; overshadowed; darkened; (meteorology) more than 90% covered by clouds.
   • 1712 (date written), [Joseph] Addison, Cato, a Tragedy. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson, […], published 1713, →OCLC, Act I, scene i, page 1:

     The Dawn is over-caſt, the Morning low’rs,
     And heavily in Clouds brings on the Day, […]

2. (figuratively) In a state of depression; gloomy; melancholy.

overcast (third-person singular simple present overcasts, present participle overcasting, simple past and past participle overcast)

1. (transitive, obsolete) To overthrow.
2. (transitive) To cover with cloud; to overshadow; to darken.
3. (transitive) To make gloomy; to depress.
4. (intransitive, obsolete) To be or become cloudy.
5. (transitive, obsolete) To transform.
6. (transitive, bookbinding) To fasten (sheets) by overcast stitching or by folding one edge over another.
7. (transitive) This term needs a definition. Please help out and add a definition, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.
   • 1919 January, Reclamation Record, volume 10, number 1, page 22:

     Old stocking tops folded make good kitchen holders. The edges should be overcast or loosely buttonholed.

• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “overcast”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• “overcast”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

• overacts