overactiveadj.

1603 P. Holland tr. Plutarch Morals 1348 Taking from it otherwhiles the over-active efficacy that it hath to torment the soule and transport it beside it selfe.

1651 N. Bacon Contin. Hist. Disc. Govt. 222 Henry the eighth was not thus minded, the affairs of Europe were gotten into a high pitch; Princes generally over active; Henry the eight inferior to none of them.

1702 Clarendon's Hist. Rebellion I. iv. 326 He would sit still, till they, who were over active, would come to reason.

1854 J. S. C. Abbott Napoleon (1855) I. xxvii. 436 The over-active, precipitate dispatch of others.

1862 Harper's Mag. Nov. 778/2 The temper of that imperfect acolyth was a little tried by the overactive discipline of his colleague in the surplice.

1898 Atlantic Monthly Apr. 434/1 Laws which have for their purpose the stimulation of an already overactive struggle for commercial supremacy cannot be approved.

1949 M. Mead Male & Female iii. 74 Too much emphasis upon the assertive demanding aspects of the mouth may build a female picture that is over-active, over-demanding, and threatening.

1960 D. C. Braungart & R. Buddeke Introd. Animal Biol. (ed. 5) xix. 330 Another common disorder of the thyroid gland..results from an overactive production of thyroxin by the gland.

1998 P. Jooste Dance with Poor Man's Daughter (1999) ix. 137 Lily has an overactive imagination.