Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To hear (speech or someone speaking) without the speaker's awareness or intent.
- v. To hear something without the speaker's awareness or intent.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To hear (one who does not wish to be heard or does not know that he is heard, or what is not addressed to the hearer or is not intended to be heard by him); hear by accident or stratagem.
- To hear over again; hear from beginning to end.
Wiktionary
- v. To hear something that wasn't meant for one's ears.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To hear more of (anything) than was intended to be heard; to hear by accident or artifice.
- v. To hear again.
WordNet 3.0
- v. hear, usually without the knowledge of the speakers
Etymologies
- From Middle English *overheren, from Old English oferhīeran ("to overhear, hear, disobey, disregard, neglect"), equivalent to over- + hear. Cognate with Dutch overhoren ("to hear, hear about"), German überhören ("to not hear, ignore"), Danish overhøre ("to overhear"), Icelandic yfirheyra ("to hear"). (Wiktionary)
Examples
“How charmed I am when I overhear a German word which”
“All i overhear is ‘now stop swearing’, ‘theres no need to shout abuse down the phone’, ‘if you continue to scream obscenities I will terminate the call’ … etc etc..”
“If the Scripps Spelling Bee had been a Mark Burnett-style production, we'd have been treated to behind-the-scenes footage of players forming alliances, strategizing to trip up the frontrunners; Isabel Jacobson, the last female speller standing (you go, girl!), pitting the boys against each other by stage-whispering invitations to clandestine trysts; We'd "overhear" overstressed kids being browbeaten by parents who'd caught them peaking at comic books rather than practicing Croatian conjugation.”
“I suggest but don't expect to be listened to that it would be prudent for South Korea, Japan, and Russia to reach a mutual understanding now on a unified reaction if such a situation should arise in the future, and the understanding should be just vocal enough for China to 'overhear' it soon without loss of face.”
“Adepts - or very powerful Mindspeakers - were so few that Savil seldom remembered that the Tayledras shared with Vanyel the ability to "overhear" any conversation that was not shielded against them.”
“The agreement was measured, and Shann knew that he was meant to "overhear" that.”
“If only Apple would fix the software so iTunes doesn't "overhear" the commands when it's in the background and you actually are trying to pause, say, a movie.”
“On the other hand, if the ad hoc network doesn't come with clever enough encryption, even Google's demonstrated how easy it is to "overhear" a seemingly private Wi-Fi network at long range.”
“I may or may not have planted that little nugget a few weeks ago, allowing her little friend Tiffany at ballet class to "overhear" it as I pretended to talk on my cell phone.”
“Sometimes the message is meant for me, and viewers" overhear "this conversation I am having with myself.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘overhear’.
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over-
above; upper; superior; eminent
overbearing, overrate, overshoot, overwhelm, overexert, overachiever, overact, overadjust, overambitious, overanalyze, overarching, overbooked and 42 more...
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General
attain, stretch, lever, flock, fraught, taunt, dub, deceive, toss, sentient, stale, brew and 52 more...
Tweets
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