overshadow

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   cast a shadow upon

   The tall tree overshadowed the house

2. 2
   verb

   be greater in significance than

   the tragedy overshadowed the couple's happiness

3. 3
   verb

   To obscure something by casting a shadow.

   While he thus ſpake, there came a cloud, and ouerſhadowed them, ⁊ they feared, as they entred into the cloude.

4. 4
   verb

   To dominate something and make it seem insignificant.

   A branch of rail transport that seems to been rather neglected by historians is that concerned with cliff railways, of which a fair number exist in Great Britain. This is probably because these lines are overshadowed by the more spectacular funicular railways in Switzerland and other mountainous regions; perhaps, too, because of the general habit of referring to them as "cliff lifts," which tends to associate them with the vertical indoor type.

5. 5
   verb

   make appear small by comparison

6. 6
   verb

   To shelter or protect.

Etymology

From Middle English overschadwen, overschadewe, from Old English ofersċeadwian (“to overshadow”), equivalent to over- + shadow. Compare with West Frisian oerskaduwe (“to overshadow”), Dutch overschaduwen (“to overshadow”), German überschatten (“to overshadow”), Gothic 𐌿𐍆𐌰𐍂𐍃𐌺𐌰𐌳𐍅𐌾𐌰𐌽 (ufarskadwjan, “to overshadow”), and more distantly, Old Norse yfirskyggja (“to overshadow”), Danish overskygge (“to overshadow”), Swedish överskugga (“to overshadow”), Old English ofersċūwan (“to overshadow”).