to overflowing with
15
2.9
- phrasal verb
:
rebosar de
- But the baskets, suitcases and bags that they carried were overflowing with loose banknotes and stacked bundles of money.
I was helpless on the altar and the church is overflowing with people.
- I was helpless on the altar and the church is overflowing with people.
- And when you feel lucky and overflowing with bliss, joy, exuberance, it pours into the other people that are in your life.
- And the night before my bathtub and toilet start overflowing with shit from the neighbors flushing wipes.
Examples
-
Sister, the schoolroom is overflowing with children.
-
The city below is overflowing with refugees.
-
The city below is overflowing with refugees.
-
As small as it is, the house is overflowing with men, women, girls, and boys all selling gasoline.
Academic text (2006) -
You have a college fund that's overflowing with money.
-
The cellars of the Palace of Justice are overflowing with prisoners.
-
One secretary sat at a huge desk overflowing with papers and three telephones ringing off the hook.
Fiction book (1995) -
Concerned parent: Web sites such as MySpace.com are overflowing with cyberbullies and sexual predators.
Academic text (2006) -
The place is bedlam, overflowing with reporters, newsreel camera crews, photographers, you name it.
Fiction book (2001) -
You have a college fund that's overflowing with money.
Synonyms
∞
1.0
Containing a lot of something, like tears or facts
27
3.5
To get more things than you can handle
16
4.1
Filled with a large amount of something
12
3.4
Filled to the top edge
1
5.8
Having too much of something for a system or place to handle
1
5.5
Contains more goods than people want to buy
1
9.9
Too full or containing too much of something
1
5.8
More than is needed or wanted
1
7.0
Carrying more weight or things than it can safely hold
1
5.2
So full that it almost overflows
1
3.8
Full to the top with something, often a feeling
So full that water spills out and covers the area around it
So full that it is almost overflowing, often with a strong feeling
Full of something that takes up most of it
Antonyms
How Full
15
2.9
∞
1.0
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase 'overflowing with' is directly compositional: 'overflow' denotes being so full that contents spill and 'with' indicates what fills it, so the combined meaning 'completely filled with' is predictable from the parts. This is a common verb + preposition pattern cross-linguistically and follows basic containment semantics, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents will understand it.
Etymology
The phrase overflowing with comes from the simple picture of a cup or basket so full that water or fruit spills over, like a cup overflowing with water. So when something is overflowing with ideas, people, or feelings, it means it is 'completely full' or 'contains too much' of that thing.