Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- To overtask or overdrive with work; overwork; wear out by toil.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb To overwork.
- transitive verb To weary excessively; to exhaust.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb transitive To
weary excessively; toexhaust . - verb Overtoiled by that day's grief and travel. — Tennyson.
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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He gave no heed to Dan, who grew more savage as the slow hours of overtoil dragged by.
The Best Short Stories of 1917 and the Yearbook of the American Short Story Various 1915
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There is, however, one more characteristic of Turner's second period, on which I have still to dwell, especially with reference to what has been above advanced respecting the fallacy of overtoil; namely, the magnificent ease with which all is done when it is _successfully_ done.
The Crown of Wild Olive also Munera Pulveris; Pre-Raphaelitism; Aratra Pentelici; The Ethics of the Dust; Fiction, Fair and Foul; The Elements of Drawing John Ruskin 1859
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There is, however, one more characteristic of Turner's second period, on which I have still to dwell, especially with reference to what has been above advanced respecting the fallacy of overtoil; namely, the magnificent ease with which all is done when it is _successfully_ done.
On the Old Road Vol. 1 (of 2) A Collection of Miscellaneous Essays and Articles on Art and Literature John Ruskin 1859
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To fits of hypochondria and deep dejection he had, as he himself tells us, been subject from his earliest manhood, and he attributes to overtoil in boyhood this tendency which was probably a part of his natural temperament.
Robert Burns John Campbell Shairp 1852
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