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Overwhelming vs Overweening - What's the difference?

overwhelming | overweening |

As verbs the difference between overwhelming and overweening

is that overwhelming is present participle of to overwhelm while overweening is present participle of lang=en.

As adjectives the difference between overwhelming and overweening

is that overwhelming is overpowering, staggering, or irresistibly strong while overweening is unduly confident; arrogant; presumptuous; conceited.

As a noun overweening is

an excessively high opinion of oneself or one's abilities; presumption, arrogance.

overwhelming

English

Verb

(head)
  • Present participle of to overwhelm .

    • Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Overpowering, staggering, or irresistibly strong.
  • *
    • The vote was taken at once, and it was agreed by an overwhelming majority that rats were comrades.
  • Very great or intense.
  • Extreme.

    • Antonyms

    * underwhelming

    overweening

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Unduly confident; arrogant; presumptuous; conceited.
  • * Shakespeare
    • Here's an overweening rogue.
    She wins one modeling contest in Montana and suddenly she's overweening .
  • *1870 ,
  • *:No success rendered him overweening and no disaster was ever known to stagger his firmness.
  • *1908 , Frederic Bancroft and William A. Dunning,
  • *:The Senate was displaying an overweening hauteur as if it were the government.
  • Exaggerated, excessive
  • * {{quote-web
    • , date=20150104 , year= , first= , last= , author=Jonathan Rauch , authorlink= , title=How to Make Men Free , site=NY Times citation , archiveorg= , accessdate=21050215 , passage=The idea that an overweening federal government is a threat to both freedom and equality (not to mention prosperity) goes back to Jefferson, James Madison, Patrick Henry and some other fairly respectable personages. }}

    Derived terms

    * overweeningly * overweeningness

    Noun

    (-)
  • An excessively high opinion of oneself or one's abilities; presumption, arrogance.
  • *, II.12:
  • *:Let us suppresse this over-weening .

    • Verb

    (head)