overweening

English

Alternative forms

• over-weening

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /əʊvəˈwiːnɪŋ/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /oʊvɚˈwinɪŋ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːnɪŋ

Etymology 1

From Middle English overweninge, equivalent to overween +‎ -ing. Cognate with obsolete Dutch overwanig, overwaand (“presumptuous; cocky; conceited”).

Adjective

overweening (comparative more overweening, superlative most overweening)

1. Unduly confident; (sometimes also) arrogant.

   Synonyms: overconfident, presumptuous, conceited; see also Thesaurus:arrogant

   Antonyms: underconfident, unconfident, uncertain, unsure, timid

   overweening pride

   She wins one modeling contest in Montana and suddenly she’s overweening.

   • c. 1601–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene v], page 263, column 2:

     Heere's an ouer-weening rogue.

   • 1842, [anonymous collaborator of Letitia Elizabeth Landon], chapter LXIII, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 175:

     The offer freely given was freely accepted, this gentleman already standing high in their opinion from his conduct to the Count; nor could they doubt that Lady Anne had lost herself many years of pleasant, and probably profitable intercourse with him, from her own acrimony of temper and overweening pride of manners; […]

   • 1870, Carl Schurz, George H. Thomas Eulogy:

     No success rendered him overweening and no disaster was ever known to stagger his firmness.

   • 1908, Frederic Bancroft, William A. Dunning, A Sketch of Carl Schurz’s Political Career:

     The Senate was displaying an overweening hauteur as if it were the government.

   • 2016 October 3, Tad Friend, “Sam Altman’s Manifest Destiny”, in The New Yorker‎^[1], New York, N.Y.: Condé Nast Publications, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 5 October 2026:

     The Valley prizes overweening ambition but expects it to be “rifle-focussed” on making the world’s best houseboat-rental platform or Cognac-delivery service.

   • 2024 May 18, Tabby Kinder, Stephen Morris, “Tesla chair on Musk: ‘I might wake up to a tweet. I don’t wake up to a strategy shift’”, in FT Weekend, London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 15:

     While they ultimately came to the same conclusion, the pre-emptive tweet made it harder to rebut the court's judgment that they were “supine servants of an overweening master”.

   • 2026 May 2, Simon Tisdall, “The king went to Washington to save Britain’s bacon. He may also have shown the US how to save itself”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian‎^[2], London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 16 October 2026:

     Who could miss this real-life king’s deft allusion to the importunities of the overweening pseudo-king in the White House? Democrats certainly didn’t. They stood and cheered.

2. Exaggerated, excessive.

   Synonyms: immoderate, unrestrained; see also Thesaurus:excessive

   Antonyms: moderate, appropriate, due, apropos

   • 2015 January 4, Jonathan Rauch, “How to Make Men Free”, in The New York Times Book Review‎^[3], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 22 April 2023:

     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

Translations

over-confident

• Bulgarian: самонадея́н (bg) (samonadeján), високоме́рен (bg) (visokoméren)
• Dutch: zelfverzekerd (nl), arrogant (nl), verwaand (nl)
• French: confiant (fr), arrogant (fr)
• German: überheblich (de), eingebildet (de), anmaßend (de), arrogant (de)
• Greek:

  Ancient Greek: ὑπέρβιος (hupérbios)

• Irish: ainteann, anuallach, ládasach, leitheadach, mórchúiseach, mórtasach, sotalach
• Occitan: arrogant (oc)
• Russian: самонаде́янный (ru) m (samonadéjannyj)
• Spanish: prepotente (es)

Etymology 2

From Middle English overweninge, equivalent to overween +‎ -ing.

Noun

overweening (countable and uncountable, plural overweenings)

1. (now rare) An excessively high opinion of oneself or one’s abilities; presumption, arrogance.
   • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 12, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC, page 258:

     Let us suppresse this over-weening [translating cuider], the first foundation of the tyrannie of the wicked spirit […].

Etymology 3

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Verb

overweening

1. present participle and gerund of overween