overweening

• over-weening

• (UK) IPA^(key): /əʊvəˈwiːnɪŋ/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /oʊvɚˈwinɪŋ/
• Rhymes: -iːnɪŋ

From Middle English overweninge, equivalent to overween +‎ -ing. Cognate with obsolete Dutch overwanig, overwaand (“presumptuous; cocky; conceited”).

overweening (comparative more overweening, superlative most overweening)

1. Unduly confident; arrogant

   She wins one modeling contest in Montana and suddenly she’s overweening.

   Synonyms: presumptuous, conceited

   • 1623, William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, Act 2, Scene 5:

     Here's an overweening rogue!

   • 1870, Carl Schurz, George H. Thomas Eulogy

     No success rendered him overweening and no disaster was ever known to stagger his firmness.

   • 1908, Frederic Bancroft and William A. Dunning, A Sketch of Carl Schurz’s Political Career

     The Senate was displaying an overweening hauteur as if it were the government.

2. Exaggerated, excessive.
   • 2015 January 4, Jonathan Rauch, “How to Make Men Free”, in NY Times‎, retrieved 21050215:

     The idea that an overweening federal government is a threat to both freedom and equality (not to mention prosperity) goes back to Jefferson, James Madison, Patrick Henry and some other fairly respectable personages.

From Middle English overweninge, equivalent to overween +‎ -ing.

overweening (countable and uncountable, plural overweenings)

1. (now rare) An excessively high opinion of oneself or one’s abilities; presumption, arrogance.
   • 1603, John Florio, transl.; Michel de Montaigne, chapter 12, in The Essayes, […], book II, printed at London: By Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], OCLC 946730821, page 258:

     Let us suppresse this over-weening [transl. cuider], the first foundation of the tyrannie of the wicked spirit […].

See the etymology of the main entry.

overweening

1. present participle of overween