Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Covered or obscured, as with clouds or mist.
  • adjective Clouded over.
  • adjective Gloomy; melancholy.
  • adjective Sewn with long, overlying stitches in order to prevent raveling, as the raw edges of fabric.
  • noun A covering, as of mist or clouds.
  • noun An arch or support for a passage over another passage in a mine.
  • noun A cast made in fishing that falls beyond the point intended.
  • noun An overcast stitch or seam.
  • intransitive verb To make cloudy or gloomy.
  • intransitive verb To cast beyond (the intended point) with a fishing rod.
  • intransitive verb To sew with long, overlying stitches.
  • intransitive verb To become cloudy or gloomy.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • In geology, cast or thrust beyond a normal position, as in a thrust-fault or overturned fold.
  • noun In mining, an air-duct or passage which crosses above another passage.
  • To throw over or across.
  • To cover; overspread.
  • To cloud; darken; cover with gloom.
  • To cover with skin, as a wound; hence, to have (a wound) healed.
  • To cast or compute at too high a rate; rate too high.
  • In sewing, to fasten by stitching roughly through and over two edges of a fabric. Also overseam.
  • To become cloudy or dull; become dark or gloomy.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective (Meteorology) Completely or almost completely covered over with clouds; -- of the sky.
  • adjective (Sewing) Sewn by overcasting.
  • transitive verb To cast or cover over; hence, to cloud; to darken.
  • transitive verb To compute or rate too high.
  • transitive verb (Sewing) To take long, loose stitches over (the raw edges of a seam) to prevent raveling.
  • transitive verb (Bookbinding) To fasten, as single sheets, by overcast stitching or by folding one edge over another.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun obsolete An outcast.
  • noun A cloud covering all of the sky.
  • adjective Covered with clouds; overshadowed; darkened.
  • adjective meteorology The sky is said to be overcast, when it is more than 90% covered by clouds.
  • adjective figuratively In a state of depression; gloomy; melancholy.
  • verb transitive, obsolete To overthrow.
  • verb transitive To cover with cloud; to overshadow; to darken.
  • verb transitive To make gloomy; to depress.
  • verb intransitive, obsolete To be or become cloudy.
  • verb transitive, obsolete To transform.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb make overcast or cloudy
  • verb sew with an overcast stitch from one section to the next
  • verb sew over the edge of with long slanting wide stitches
  • noun gloomy semidarkness caused by cloud cover
  • noun a long whipstitch or overhand stitch overlying an edge to prevent raveling
  • noun a cast that falls beyond the intended spot
  • adjective filled or abounding with clouds
  • noun the state of the sky when it is covered by clouds

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

over- +‎ cast

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word overcast.

Examples

  • The early fall blast of intense heat follows an unusually cool summer that often found beaches covered in overcast and whipped by chilly winds.

    Los Angeles Heat Wave Bakes At Record 113 Degrees AP 2010

  • It has been such a boost to do this in overcast weather, that I have made up my mind to get a pretty calender for ever single room next year.

    Updates 2009

  • The early fall blast of intense heat follows an unusually cool summer that often found beaches covered in overcast and whipped by chilly winds.

    Los Angeles Heat Wave Bakes At Record 113 Degrees AP 2010

  • It has been such a boost to do this in overcast weather, that I have made up my mind to get a pretty calender for ever single room next year.

    Archive 2009-05-01 2009

  • "A little bit overcast is actually a lot better than a sunny sky for us out there," Miller said.

    NHL players excited to go outdoors in Buffalo's chill 2007

  • At the airport he gave them a standard briefing and an update on the New York surface weather, which was stagnant under a low, thin overcast, with light winds and thickening haze.

    The Crash of EgyptAir 990 2001

  • At the airport he gave them a standard briefing and an update on the New York surface weather, which was stagnant under a low, thin overcast, with light winds and thickening haze.

    The Crash of EgyptAir 990 2001

  • On the morning of the 1968 crash -- during a spy mission shrouded in overcast, foggy weather -- the OP-2E Neptune's pilot radioed that he was going to drop through a hole in the clouds, according to a synopsis from

    Buck, Arthur C. 1990

  • The visibility was good enough to work, and although I found out to my surprise that the cloud deck at 8,000 feet was a solid overcast, I blasted out the code word for go and the strike was on.

    Thud Ridge Broughton, Jack, 1925- 1969

  • The crew was last seen descending through thin overcast toward the target area and it never reappeared.

    Baker, Arthur D. 1965

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.