| 释义 |
overbuild, v.|əʊvəˈbɪld, ˌəʊvə-|
Pa. tense and pple. overbuilt.
[over- 1, 8, 27.]
1. trans. To build over or upon; to cover or surmount with a building or structure. Chiefly fig.
1649G. Daniel Trinarch., Hen. IV, ccxci, When Iustice, by Ambition over-built, Is fronted with new Turretts. 1784Cowper Task iii. 193 Sage, erudite, profound, Terribly arch'd, and aquiline his nose, And overbuilt with most impending brows. 1857Willmott Pleas. Lit. xi. 47 Some men overbuild their nature with books.
2. To build too much or to excess. Also fig.
1642Fuller Holy & Prof. St. iii. vii. 168 Who by over⁓building their houses have dilapidated their lands. 1713C'tess of Winchilsea Misc. Poems 124 'Twas not to save the Charge: That in this over-building Age, My House was not more large. 1909Daily Chron. 17 July 3/2 This is an enjoyable book... It has faults of plot—it is over-built—and of character-drawing [etc.]. 1946Sun (Baltimore) 4 June 11/7 France also has some merit in his charge of ‘overbuilding’ players. 1946‘R. West’ Train of Powder (1955) 9 The German tendency to overbuild which has done much to get them into..recurring financial troubles. 1977Time 8 Aug. 43/1 As a result of the slowdown in the growth of petroleum consumption and some reckless overbuilding by shipyards in the early 1970s, the tanker business is in the worst depression in memory.
3. To build too much upon; to erect more buildings than are required upon (an area). Also fig.
1601Holland Pliny I. 554 Prouided alwaies, that a mans land be not ouer-built. 1864Webster, Overbuilt, built too much; having too many buildings; as an overbuilt part of a town. 1865W. White Eastern England II. xxi. 283 To me..its especial charm is that it is not overbuilt or cockneyfied. 1870A. T. de Vere May Carols (ed. 2) 12 That, wholly over-built by grace, Nature might vanish, like some isle In great towers lost. 1893A. Jessopp Studies by Recluse (ed. 2) iii. 97 It was one of the many religious houses that started in a very ambitious way, and early overbuilt themselves. 1895Chicago Advance 21 Nov. 737/1 A city which has been over-built, which has ‘superfluous’ houses and flats by the block and mile. 1939Sun (Baltimore) 11 Apr. 3/3 ‘It seems a paradox,’ he added, ‘that in order to revive building operations and furnish employment for a class of workmen it must be carried on in places already overbuilt and becomes the real cause of the idleness of this class of workers.’ 1961Wall St. Jrnl. 24 Mar. 1/1 ‘I don't think the lower interest rates are going to have the slightest effect on housing demand,’ says Henry Bubb, president of Capitol Federal Savings & Loan Association of Topeka, ‘We're just over⁓built.’ 1977Sat. Rev. (U.S.) 17 Sept. 54/2 Is little New Orleans overbuilt? Perhaps not. By early summer the Hilton had already booked one million room-nights. |