1886 Science 20 Aug. 158/2 Glacial aprons of overwash drift, that fringe the outer sides of moraines in favorable situations.

1889 Nature 3 Oct. 558/1 In the newer moraines the terminal loops meet on opposite sides of large interlobate moraines, and correlation is made only after critical study of their connections, over-riding, overwash, etc.

1890 Cent. Mag. Mar. 698/2 At least ten times ten centuries have passed away since the implements of stone, fashioned by this early man, were lost and covered by the overwash of the glacial gravels.

1957 J. K. Charlesworth Quaternary Era I. xxii. 442 Thus outwash may occur with or without moraines; the two types constitute respectively Chamberlin's overwash aprons and outwash plains or aprons.

1973 New Scientist 4 Jan. 25/3 Beach houses, motels, restaurants and the US Navy base at Cape Hatteras..are shielded from normal storms, salt spray and overwash by the artificial dunes.

1990 Sea Frontiers Dec. 34/1 The most important of these, particularly on low, narrow islands, is storm overwash, which pushes huge amounts of sand across the island and into the lagoon.

tr. Palladius De re Rustica (Duke Humfrey) (1896) vi. 133 Make vncture of lupynys..for sheep..aftir thre Dayes let ouer wasshe [v.r. over wesshe; L. mergantur] hem in the see.

1577 W. Harrison Hist. Descr. Islande Brit. iii. vi. f 108/1, in R. Holinshed Chron. I Pyrates and robbers by sea, are..hanged on the shore at lowe water marke, where they are left til three tides haue ouer-washed them.

1589 R. Greene Menaphon sig. I2^v Her lips are roses ouerwasht with dew.

1594 W. Shakespeare Lucrece sig. I2 But durst not aske..Why her two suns were clowd ecclipsed so, Nor why her faire cheeks ouer-washt with woe.

1638 J. Suckling Aglaura v. 36 And so the prettie flowers blubber'd with dew, and over-washt with raine, hang downe their heads.

1837 T. Carlyle French Revol. III. vii. v. 427 The ship of the State again..overwashed, near to swamping, with unfruitful brine.

1856 E. B. Browning Aurora Leigh ii. 73 I set you on the level of my soul, And overwashed you with the bitter brine Of some habitual thoughts.

1905 W. T. Kilgour Twenty Years on Ben Nevis xi. 90 A wide expanse of ocean studded with countless islets, some of which..gradually disappear as is buffeted and overwashed by surf.

a1935 E. A. Robinson Galley Race in Uncoll. Poems & Verse (1975) v. 10 There is a rock, which when the wintry winds Obscure the stars, is thumped and overwashed By tumid floods.

1992 Pract. Fishkeeping (BNC) Apr. 28 The ‘saltmarsh’ where freshwater-logged marshland is over-washed by the sea.

1823 C. Lamb in London Mag. July 21/2 The o'er-washing billows drove us below deck.

2001 Pensacola (Florida) News Jrnl. (Nexis) 28 July 8 a The overwashing tide of political correctness and unadorned, universal sameness.