释义 |
overwrite, v.|əʊvəˈraɪt, ˈəʊvə-| [over- 8, 1, 27, 23, 20.] I. 1. a. trans. To write (something) over other writing, as a palimpsest. b. To write over (a surface), to cover with writing.
1699Lister Journ. Paris 108 This [MS. of St. Matthew] was cut to pieces..and another Book overwritten in a small Modern Greek Hand, about 150 years ago. 1820Byron To Murray 23 Apr., They have overwritten all the city walls with ‘Up with the republic!’ 1856Mrs. Browning Aur. Leigh v. 1219 The Elzevirs Have fly-leaves overwritten by his hand. c. Computers. To place new data in a section of memory and destroy what is already there: used with the old data or the location as obj.
1959[implied in overwriting vbl. n. below]. 1962Gloss. Terms Automatic Data Processing (B.S.I.) 25 The previous data is said to be overwritten in this process. 1970[see overlay n. 6]. 1972Computer Jrnl. XV. 200/2 Only one field, which contains an entry stating who is allowed to overwrite the file, may be altered by the programmer. 1973C. W. Gear Introd. Computer Sci. vi. 245 Storing into a data area will overwrite another piece of data. †2. To write over or above; to superscribe, entitle. Obs.
1761Sterne Tr. Shandy IV. i, This [tale]..is overwritten ‘The Intricacies of Diego and Julia’. 3. To write over again, re-write.
1874Nicholson in New Shaks. Soc. Trans. 123 When overwriting plays, he left or worked in words and phrases that he found in the original. 1933W. E. Orchard From Faith to Faith v. 67 It did not seem to me to matter much whether the Book of Isaiah had one or more authors, or the Pentateuch had been overwritten by different hands much later than Moses. II. 4. a. intr. To write too much; b. refl. To injure or exhaust oneself by excessive writing; c. trans. To write too much about (a subject).
1815Jane Austen Let. 31 Dec. (1952) 449 It encourages me..to believe that I have not yet..overwritten myself. 1837Edin. Rev. LXIV. 312 Paul de Kock never over⁓writes. 1883Pall Mall G. 8 Nov., It is a pity that the publishers induce so many young authors of promise to over⁓write themselves. a1889Browning Let. in F. L. Lucas Tennyson (1957) iii. 21, I have written too much, my dear Mr. Gosse; I have over-written; I have written myself out. 1895Athenæum 3 Aug. 160/3 Golf is over-written as well as over-played now. d. trans. (freq. in ppl. a. and vbl. n.). To write too elaborately or ornately; to write in a high-coloured, over-rich style.
1923F. M. Ford Let. 15 Oct. (1965) 155, I have by me a story of his that I don't like much. I might print it—but it is extremely over-written and..the extravagance I least like is over-writing. 1931Daily Express 31 Jan. 8/2 A fortnight ago an over-written but under-nourished play called ‘Colonel Satan’ broke the Haymarket record for brevity of life. 1937C. S. Lewis Let. 8 Mar. (1966) 158 Have you read F. L. Lucas' Decline and Fall of the Romantic Ideal? Hideously over-written in parts, but well worth reading. 1947― in Ess. presented to Charles Williams p. vii, In the earlier stories..there was a good deal of over-writing, of excess in the descriptions and, in dialogue, of a false brilliance. 1968[see Nabokovian a.]. 1977Times 28 Apr. 22/3 This book..is..so over-written at times it irritated me. Hence overˈwriting vbl. n.; overˈwritten ppl. a.
1850J. Miley Hist. Papal States I. 8 This palimpsest, or multifariously over-written document, which we have thus discovered the superficies of the Papal territory to be. 1939H. J. Massingham Eng. Countryside iv. 73 These are the legitimate South Downs, the over-written and exploited range. 1949W. G. Hoskins Midland England i. 3 Stone that gives to not a few Midland towns and villages a beauty unsurpassed by the most over-written Cotswold places. 1956N. R. Ker Pastoral Care 23 Besides additions, the text contains erasures, some with and many without overwriting... Overwriting where it occurs is mostly in the main hand. 1959M. H. Wrubel Primer of Programming v. 113 A common error made by beginners is to erase program steps by storing data in the same location. An error of this kind, called ‘overwriting’, is easily detected. |