overuse

«overuse» in Mova's school dictionary: To use something too much or too often — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 4 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

verb (overuse, overuses, overused, overusing); noun (overuse — uncountable)

meaning for a pupil

1) (verb) To use something too much or too often. tree →

2) (noun) Using something too much, so that it is wasted, worn out, harmful or boring. tree →

sense in the lessons

In English lessons teachers warn about overusing words like "nice", "said" or "then": it makes writing dull. In science and health it comes up as overuse of water, antibiotics or screens, and overuse injuries in sport. Overused phrases are called clichés. Phrases: overuse of, overused word, overuse injury.

examples

• Try not to overuse the word "nice" in your story. tree →
• Overuse of antibiotics can make germs stronger. tree →
• My knee hurts from overuse after the football tournament. tree →
• "Awesome" is a bit overused, isn't it? tree →
• Overusing water in a drought is a bad idea. tree →
• The teacher circled every overused "then" in my writing. tree →

note

Verb stress: o-ver-USE (z sound); noun stress: O-ver-use (s sound). Past: overused. The noun is uncountable: "the overuse of…". Do not confuse with "misuse" (using wrongly) or "abuse" (using badly or cruelly).

In the corpora

• Playing too long without breaks can cause overuse injuries, and pushing through pain can make them worse.
• Bacteria can become resistant to antibiotics if the medicines are overused, which is why doctors do not give them for colds.
• About a third of the world's soils are degraded by erosion, salt, pollution or overuse.
• Muscles grow stronger while resting after work; far too much of the same exercise every day leads to overuse pain.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «overuse» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.