1846 E. Forbes Let. in G. Wilson & A. Geikie Mem. E. Forbes (1861) xii. 394 This weather, and the overpress of work..impede a fair recovery.

1867 W. H. Smyth & E. Belcher Sailor's Word-bk. Crabbing to it, carrying an overpress of sail in a fresh gale, by which a ship crabs or drifts sideways to leeward.

1871 Daily News 6 Jan. Horses which had succumbed under overpress of work.

a1924 M. Ghose Orphic Myst. & Immortal Eve in Coll. Wks. (1970) 82 Blithe Aphrodite..goes..To lop earth's overpress, Her teeming burgeon.

1992 P. O'Brian Clarissa Oakes v. 139 I like to think it was the stern-chaser I had just fired that cut the backstay but it was more likely an absurd overpress of sail.

2000 Newsday (Nexis) 27 Nov. a51 Hill, a former NBA coach in his second season at Fordham, may start to feel the pressure to succeed. The Rams ignore the overpress... ‘We don't want to get caught up in the hype.’

a1382 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) (Bodl. 959) (1959) Gen. xlvii. 13 In al þe world breed lackide & hunger ouerpresside [a1425 Corpus Oxf. oppresside; L. oppresserat] þe erþ.

c1455 Quoniam Attachiamenta c. 60, in Dict. Older Sc. Tongue at Ourpres(s In help & subsyd of thaim that ar ourpressyt.

1496 (c1410) Dives & Pauper (de Worde) vii. xxviii. 318/2 Thou shalt not therfore..ouerpresse hym with usurye.

1525 Ld. Berners tr. J. Froissart Cronycles II. lxxxiii. [lxxix.] 247 He wolde ouerpresse them with taxes and subsydyes.

1593 T. Lodge Life & Death William Long Beard sig. B2 The weake should to the walles, and the peny father by his power, should ouerpresse the penilesse in their pouerties.

1644 in J. Milton tr. M. Bucer Ivdgem. conc. Divorce Testimonies sig. A4^v My minde is overprest with grief.

1663 T. Jordan New Droll sig. A4^v Distracted thoughts did overpress him.

1702 C. Beaumont J. Beaumont's Psyche (new ed.) xxiii. cxcix. 355 The heavy Maid..overpress'd with Mountains of Annoy, Hung down her head.

1744 E. Haywood Female Spectator (1748) II. No. 7. 49 Her heart, overpressed beneath a weight of anguish, refused its accustomed motion.

1829 L. E. Landon Misc. Poems in Venetian Bracelet 296 How the heart, overpress'd with its own thoughts,—And what oppresses the young heart like love?

1940 W. S. Churchill Let. 29 May in F. Owen Tempestuous Journey (1955) xxxiii. 749 I have simply been so overpressed by terrible events that I have not had life or strength to address myself to it.

1489 W. Caxton tr. C. de Pisan Bk. Fayttes of Armes i. xii. sig. Bviii^v They ouerpresse and ouerstep one ouer that other.

1523 Ld. Berners tr. J. Froissart Cronycles I. ccxxxvii. 338 He was closed in amonge his enemyes, and so sore ouerpressed that he was felled downe to the erthe.

1612 M. Drayton Poly-olbion viii. 116 His valiant Britans slaine..(o'represt with Roman power).

1656 Ld. Orrery Parthenissa V. iii. iv. 210 He and all that followed him, overpressed with multitudes, were every one kill'd or taken.

1700 T. Brown Amusem. Serious & Comical iv. 46 He is at the farther end of the Hall, I call to him, he strives to come to me, but his Breath fails him, the Crowd over-presses him.

a1577 G. Gascoigne Hundred Flowers in Wks. (1587) 169 I sawe the boat was overprest.

1624 High Court of Admiralty Exam. (MS.) 28 Apr. That their shippe might..not bee overpressed with saile to the wrongeinge of her.

a1661 W. Brereton Trav. (1844) 5 The ship..was heavy laden with merchants' goods, and more overpressed with passengers.

1697 J. Dryden tr. Virgil Æneis ix, in tr. Virgil Wks. 491 Two tall Oaks.., overpress'd with Nature's heavy load, Dance to the whistling Winds.

1727 J. Swift Atlas in J. Swift et al. Misc.: Last Vol. iii. 87 A Pedlar overprest Unloads upon a Stall to rest.

1768 J. Cremer Mem. x, in R. R. Bellamy Ramblin' Jack (1936) 129 Our Ship never made any watter, but when over-presing her with Saile uppon a wind everey Voage Soe.

1987 Los Angeles Times (Nexis) 25 Feb. (Sports section) 15/5 Keep your mainsail full, but don't overpress your little ship, sail or power.

1998 Herald (Glasgow) (Nexis) 27 June 13 While they were all piling on the sail..and ended up damaging sails and gear—when the going got really tough we eased back a bit and tried not to overpress the boat.

1818 H. J. Todd Johnson's Dict. Eng. Lang. Overpress, to overcome by entreaty; to press or persuade too much.

1865 M. Arnold Ess. Crit. ix. 291 The motives of reward and punishment have come..to be strangely over-pressed by many Christian moralists.

1869 R. D. Blackmore Lorna Doone xxii. 304 All my sense of modesty, and value for my dinner, were against my over pressing all the graceful hints I had given about Lorna.

1904 N.E.D. (at cited word) He sometimes overpresses his point.

1955 H. Butterfield Man on his Past iv. iii. 22 Some of them overpressed the thesis concerning the primacy of foreign policy.

2000 Agence France Presse (Nexis) 13 Nov. We cannot overpress the issue at the moment.

1886 C. Browne in Pall Mall Gaz. 16 Sept. 11/2 To educate a half-starved child at all is to over-press it.

1943 L. W. Holborn War & Peace Aims U.N. iii. i. 252 Our first duty as Britishers is to our own people so to organize our economy and our resources as to give them a decent and happy standard of life..and to see that none are overpressed in making their individual contribution to our production effort.

1993 B. Watson Effective Teaching Relig. Educ. (BNC) 50 All teachers are over-pressed with regard to what is expected of them, and none more so than those doing RE.