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Glite Dictionary
to overbrowse

to overbrowse

9.2
To eat too many plants in an area and harm the land
  • verb
  • /ˌoʊvərˈbraʊz/
  • Specialized
translation icon : sobrepastorear
  • The deer have overbrowsed the young trees, leading to a decline in their growth.

Examples

  • The subalpine forest habitat of this species is severely overbrowsed by feral and domestic ungulates (sheep), although effective fencing could solve this problem.

    Academic text (2012)

  • In this area, overbrowsing by livestock has resulted in a loss of native plant species.

  • Farmers are concerned about the deer overbrowsing their crops and damaging the fields.

Synonyms

to overgraze
vsto overbrowse
  • Specialized
1 5.6

To let animals eat so much grass that the land cannot recover

is broader, applying to all vegetation eaten by animals rather than grass only
to overexploit
vsto overbrowse
1 7.4

Use things from nature like fish or trees so much that they disappear

is narrower, describing animals overconsuming vegetation rather than general resource use

How Grazed

to denude
5 7.8
to overbrowse
  • Specialized
9.2
to graze
35 2.5
to browse
2 5.0

Surface Forms

overbrowse infinitive
overbrowsed past
overbrowsed past participle
overbrowsing present participle
overbrowses third person singular

Morphology

overbrowse = browse (transparent) = over + browse

Formed by the productive prefix 'over-' meaning 'excessively' plus 'browse' meaning to feed on vegetation, so the sense is directly derivable.

Etymology

Overbrowse comes from the parts over- ('too much') and browse ('eat leaves or small plants'), so you can picture animals eating more plants than an area can handle. That's why to overbrowse means animals eat so much vegetation in one place that young trees and other plants cannot grow.