a spirit with a higher content of alcohol than standard spirit
adjective
2.
containing more alcohol than standard spirit
overproof in American English
(ˌoʊvərˈpruf)
adjective
containing more alcohol than proof spirit does
overproof in American English
(ˈouvərˈpruːf)
adjective
containing a greater proportion of alcohol than proof spirit does
Word origin
[1800–10; over- + proof]This word is first recorded in the period 1800–10. Other words that entered Englishat around the same time include: chlorine, gong, hike, rejuvenate, studioover- is a prefixal use of over, occurring in various senses in compounds (overboard; overcoat; overhang; overlap; overlord; overrun; overthrow), and especially employed, with the sense of “over the limit,” “to excess,” “toomuch,” “too,” to form verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and nouns (overact; overcapitalize; overcrowd; overfull; overmuch; oversupply; overweight), and many others, mostly self-explanatory: a hyphen, which is commonly absent fromold or well-established formations, is sometimes used in new coinages or in any wordswhose component parts it may be desirable to set off distinctly