Verb

To (tighten a spring of) something excessively.

*{{quote-news, year=1989, date=July 4, author=Jacquin Sanders, title=What makes a watchmaker tick?, work=St. Petersburg Times citation

, passage=People also come in full of misgivings about "overwinding'" their watches. "You can't ' overwind a watch - you can only underwind it," said McKelvey.}}

*{{quote-news, year=1996, date=April 21, author=Jenny Gilbert, title=Golden oldies reveal the three faces of Ashton, work=The Independent citation

, passage=In a typical Morris cock-snook at classical technique, tutu-ed dancers prance Bambi-like across the stage. On and off, on and off, with fixed smiles like overwound clockwork dolls: it should have been charming and funny, but despite stylish individual efforts, the ragged ensemble meant the joke fell flat.}}

*{{quote-news, year=2000, date=December 16, author=Dennis Roddy, title=The unbearable lightness of being Al Gore, work=Pittsburgh Post-Gazette citation

, passage=I met him 10 years ago in a hallway in Harrisburg and departed with the image of a man whose psyche approximated a badly overwound clock: Everything is tight and in place, but nothing's moving.}}

To twist itself more tightly.

*{{quote-news, year=2006, date=August 7, title=Surprise Finding for Stretched DNA. [summary], work=Ascribe Higher Education News Service citation

, passage=DNA's helical structure implies that twisting and stretching should be coupled, hence the prediction that DNA should unwind when stretched

Verb

(en verb)

(obsolete) To outflank.

(Milton)

(Webster 1913)