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overread

verb

  1. read again more closely, interperate to a greater degree
L1522862 on Wikidata ↗

Wiktionary

Pronunciation: /əʊvəˈɹiːd/ / /əʊvəˈɹɛd/

adj

Etymology: From Middle English overreden, from Old English oferrǣdan (“to read over; read through; consider”), equivalent to over- + read.

  1. Having read too much.

verb

Etymology: From Middle English overreden, from Old English oferrǣdan (“to read over; read through; consider”), equivalent to over- + read.

  1. To read over, or peruse.

    Over the dore thus written she did spye, / Bee bold: she oft and oft it over-red, / Yet could not find what sence it figured […].

  2. To interpret something to a greater degree, or in a more positive way, than appropriate; read in too much depth; overinterpret; overanalyze.

    To overread Plath's houses is to transform these biographical documents into spatial ones.

    At the same time, we overread. That is, we find in narratives qualities, motives, moods, ideas, judgments, even events for which there is no direct evidence in the discourse.

  3. To read too much or excessively.