overfall

1. (transitive) To fall on or spill over so as to cover (something).Examples: "But her laugh stuck in her throat, for at that moment a shadow overfell the two houses"; "1 of these ladies was strikingly handsome, with long black hair which overfell her face as she worked."; "The troll overfell him. A moment he lay under that mass and could not breathe."transitive

2. (transitive) To change or affect so as to pervade (something); to come overExamples: "From thence King Hakon proceeded up the Dovrefield; but as he was going over the mountains he road all day after a ptarmigan, which flew up beside him , and in this chase a sickness overfell him, which ended in his death ; and he died on the mountains."; "Such a blankness overfell his face!"; "All three passages refer to the disaster that overfell Sennacherib's host and to nothing else."transitive

3. (intransitive) To fall over; to spill from an edge or height.Examples: "I had arrived at this conclusion, and was meditating on my possible conduct under the circumstances, as I groped my way gingerly enough in the dark shadow of a long crumbling wall, where the ivy clustered and overfell, when round a slight bend, obscured by straggling bushes , I came upon the most unexpected and picturesque sight imaginable – that of a gipsy camp."; "A dam fitted between the sixth control group and the first insected group caused the water to overfall into the lower series and thereby prevented upstream movement of infective cysts."; "There is provision for excess water to overfall from the canal to the River Liffey below and, in times of water shortage, the process may be reversed using temporary pumping facilities."intransitive

4. (intransitive) To fall over; to topple.Examples: "Then back-toppling, crashing back – a dead weight flung out to wrack, Horse and riders overfell."; "But that's OK, I mean one is apt to overfall today because the work is so crucial."; "And accordingly the said Indian went into his canoe at the mouth of the Great Bay , and when he was about a rod off the boat, the said John Keniston took up my gun and shot at him , and immediately after the canoe overfell and the Indian swimm'd towards the shore — and about a quarter of a mile further up the Bay, the other Indian which before had left the boat came off to them and inquired after his brother;"intransitive