Definitions

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

  • adjective Executed with the hand brought forward and down from above the level of the shoulder.
  • adjective Sewn with close, vertical stitches drawing two edges together, with each stitch passing over the seam formed by the edges.
  • adverb In an overhand manner.
  • noun An overhand throw, stroke, or delivery.
  • noun An overhand stitch or seam.
  • transitive verb To sew with overhand stitches.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • In cricket, with the hand raised above the elbow or over the ball: as, overhand bowling.
  • In base-ball, with the hand above the shoulder: as, overhand pitching.
  • In mining, done from below upward: as, overhand stoping.
  • In needlework, to sew over and over.
  • With the hand over the object; with the knuckles upward; with the hand raised higher than the elbow: opposed to underhand: as, he bowls overhand.
  • In mining. from below upward: used in reference to stoping out the contents of the vein. See stope, n. and verb
  • In needlework, over and over.
  • noun The upper hand; superiority; supremacy.

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

  • noun The upper hand; advantage; superiority; mastery.
  • noun (Baseball) A throwing or pitching style that is overhanded; also an overhand{2} pitch.
  • adjective (Sewing) Over and over; -- applied to a style of sewing, or to a seam, in which two edges, usually selvedges, are sewed together by passing each stitch over both.
  • adjective (Baseball, Cricket, Tennis, etc.) Done (as pitching or bowling) with the hand higher than the elbow, or the arm above, or higher than, the shoulder.
  • adjective See Illustration of Knot.
  • adverb In an overhand manner or style.

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

  • adjective Executed with the hand brought forward and down from above the shoulders
  • adjective Sewn with close, vertical stitches that draw the edges of a seam together
  • adjective With the working part on top of the standing part
  • adverb In such a manner

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

  • adjective with hand brought forward and down from above shoulder level
  • adjective sewn together with overhand stitches (close vertical stitches that pass over and draw the two edges together)

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

Support

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

Examples

  • I've never climbed anything on that wall -- the overhand is pretty severe and I am pretty heavy.

    with the thoughts you'd be thinkin' you could be another Lincoln jmeadows 2008

  • These are basically the same stitch, called overhand if it is perpendicular and whipping if it is slanted.

    HOME COMFORTS CHERYL MENDELSON 2005

  • These are basically the same stitch, called overhand if it is perpendicular and whipping if it is slanted.

    HOME COMFORTS CHERYL MENDELSON 2005

  • These are basically the same stitch, called overhand if it is perpendicular and whipping if it is slanted.

    HOME COMFORTS CHERYL MENDELSON 2005

  • These are basically the same stitch, called overhand if it is perpendicular and whipping if it is slanted.

    HOME COMFORTS CHERYL MENDELSON 2005

  • -- By far the greatest bulk of ore is broken overhand, that is broken upward from one level to the next above.

    Principles of Mining Valuation, Organization and Administration Herbert Hoover 1919

  • To escape the wrath of the hornets, Peter descended the tree "overhand," which being interpreted means that he dropped and caught the limbs as he went down so as to decrease the speed.

    Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great - Volume 11 Little Journeys to the Homes of Great Businessmen Elbert Hubbard 1885

  • Regardless, I'm sure we can all agree that unless you've got a cat that likes to play with the roll, "overhand" is the only, correct, way to put in a roll of toilet paper. people could stand to do this.

    Original Signal - Transmitting Buzz 2009

  • I thought at first that getting out of bed before my eyes are fairly open and turning myself into a circus actor by doing every kind of overhand, foot, arm and leg contortion that the mind of cruel man could invent to torture a human being with, would kill me before I had been at it a week, but when I read on page sixteen that as soon as all that horror was over I must jump right into the tub of cold water, I kicked, metaphorically speaking.

    The Melting of Molly Maria Thompson Daviess 1898

  • I thought at first that getting out of bed before my eyes are fairly open, and turning myself into a circus acrobat by doing every kind of overhand, foot, arm and leg contortion that the mind of cruel man could invent to torture a human being with, would kill me before I had been at it a week, but when I read on page sixteen that as soon as all that horror was over I must jump right into the tub of cold water,

    The Melting of Molly Maria Thompson Daviess 1898

Comments

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