over

over again Go to (all) over again.

over and above something more than some-

thing; in addition to something. (Infor-

mal.) I’ll need another twenty dollars

over and above the amount you have al-

ready given me. You’ve been eating too

much food—over and above what is re-

quired for good nutrition. That’s why

you’re gaining weight.

over and done with finished. (Informal.)

I’m glad that’s over and done with.

Now that I have college over and done

with, I can get a job.

over and over (again) repeatedly. She

stamped her foot over and over again.

Bill whistled the same song over and over.

over my dead body not if I can stop you.

(Slang. It means that you’ll have to kill

me to prevent me from keeping you from

doing something.) Over my dead body

you’ll sell this house! You want to quit

college? Over my dead body!

over someone’s head too difficult or clever

for someone to understand. (Also literal.)

The children have no idea what the new

teacher is talking about. Her ideas are way

over their heads.  She enrolled in a

physics course, but it turned out to be miles

over her head.

over the hill overage; too old to do some-

thing. (Informal.) Now that Mary’s

forty, she thinks she’s over the hill. My

grandfather was over eighty before he felt

as if he was over the hill.

over the hump over the difficult part. (In-

formal.) This is a difficult project, but

we’re over the hump now. I’m halfway

through—over the hump—and it looks as

if I may get finished after all.

over there Go to (way) over there.

over the short haul for the immediate fu-

ture. Over the short haul, you’d be bet-

ter off to put your money in the bank.

Over the short haul, you may wish you had

done something different. But things will

work out all right.

over the top 1. having gained more than

one’s goal. Our fund-raising campaign

went over the top by $3,000. We didn’t

go over the top. We didn’t even get half of

what we set out to collect. 2. excessive; be-

yond the pale; overdone. Her imitation

of the president was over the top and com-

pletely offensive. This is not satire! It is

cruel and over the top.

over with Go to (all) over with.

owing to because of something; due to the

fact of something. Owing to the late-

ness of the evening, I must go home. We

were late owing to the heavy traffic.

own up (to something) to confess to some-

I know you broke the window.

Come on and own up to it. The boy

holding the baseball bat owned up. What

else could he do?