overwind

1. (transitive) To wind (tighten a spring of) something excessively.Examples: "People also come in full of misgivings about "overwinding" their watches. "You can't overwind a watch - you can only underwind it," said McKelvey."; "In a typical Morris cock-snook at classical technique, tutu-ed dancers prance Bambi-like across the stage. On and off, on and off, with fixed smiles like overwound clockwork dolls: it should have been charming and funny, but despite stylish individual efforts, the ragged ensemble meant the joke fell flat."; "I met him 10 years ago in a hallway in Harrisburg and departed with the image of a man whose psyche approximated a badly overwound clock: Everything is tight and in place, but nothing's moving."transitive

2. (intransitive) To twist (itself) more tightly.Examples: "DNA's helical structure implies that twisting and stretching should be coupled, hence the prediction that DNA should unwind when stretched […] That is why it was such surprise when we directly measured twist-stretch coupling to find instead DNA overwinds when stretched."intransitive