overspill
/ˈəʊvəspɪl
/noun [mass noun]
1The action or result of spilling over or spreading into another area: there was an extra bed for the overspill of sleepers...
- Not uncommonly there is no bed because of overspill from the medical wards on to the surgical wards, as in winter bed crises, and the operation is postponed for weeks or months.
- That could have been avoided to a significant extent, if not entirely, by cutting and loading the clay directly into barges in some areas and by restricting the period during which overspill was allowed to continue in others.
- This also needed to be monitored in residential areas to make sure there was no overspill.
1.1British A surplus population moving or forced to move from an overcrowded area to a less heavily populated one: organizing arrangements for overspill from the cities...
- All its 250 staff had to move to temporary overspill offices on the former Transco site at Heworth Green.
- The authorities must take the blame for this for turning a blind eye to the town being used as a dumping ground for overspill areas, so we now have anti-social behaviour on a scale that many inner city areas never even see.
- Norris Green was one of the first overspill areas built after the war.