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to hover over

to hover over

15 3.3
Stay in the air above something, moving only a little, like a helicopter or bird
  • phrasal verb
  • /ˈhʌvər ˈoʊvər/
translation icon : mantenerse en el aire sobre
  • Stenner makes himself sound bored, but his hand hovers over the call button, and the kid knows it.
  • a helicopter hovered over
  • a drone hovered over
  • a cloud hovering over

No matter where I am in the house, if I'm eating a meal, he hovers over and monitors the bites on my plate.

Examples

  • At any hour of the day, patches of sickly mist hovered over the bog.

    Fiction book (1997)

  • From where Bill watched, looking down, he felt like a bird hovering over his nest.

    Fiction book (1995)

  • No matter where I am in the house, if I'm eating a meal, he hovers over and monitors the bites on my plate.

    I've Had It

  • Within three minutes, the egg hovered over a large sinkhole in the middle of a frozen plain.

    Fiction book (2000)

  • I floated straight toward it, and I found myself hovering over its corrugated surface.

    Fiction book (1995)

  • Vuk had dipped his pen, and now it hovered over the paper.

    Fiction book (1997)

  • Moira and Julia hovered over their bowls with big eyes, delighting in each bite.

    Fiction book (2000)

  • "Feel better, dear," Mrs. Richards said, and her hand hovered over Hester Sarah's back without actually patting it.

    Fiction book (1999)

  • The drone will hover over the field to capture stunning aerial shots.

  • The bird began to hover over the water, searching for fish below.

Synonyms

to hover
vsto hover over
85 2.8

To stay in one place in the air without moving

is held above something while moving only slightly in the air

Antonyms

to land
∞ 1.0

To come down and rest on a surface

How Still

to hover over
15 3.3
to float
645 1.0
to drift
331 2.9

Surface Forms

hover over infinitive
hovered over past
hovered over past participle
hovering over present participle
hovers over third person singular

Morphology

hover + over

The meaning is directly derivable from 'hover' (to remain in place above) combined with 'over' (position above/above an item); in a computing context this naturally maps to holding the pointer above an element to trigger information. This compositional pattern is common in UI language and cross-linguistically transparent, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents will likely understand the MWE.

Etymology

Hover over comes from the image of a bird or a helicopter that hovers over a spot, moving its wings or rotors to stay in the air without moving forward. So, it now means 'to stay in one place in the air above something'.