overbuild

verb

over·​build ˌō-vər-ˈbild 

overbuilt ˌō-vər-ˈbilt  ; overbuilding

transitive verb

: to build beyond the actual demand of

intransitive verb

: to build houses or commercial developments in excess of demand

Examples of overbuild in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

One of the future in-stadium improvements that Boise State administrators want to focus on is adding overbuilds at the bottom of both the east and west sides. — Idaho Statesman, 13 July 2026

In a Bloomberg interview published Thursday, Zuckerberg discussed the cloud and shot down the bear case that the move signals that Meta has overbuilt its AI infrastructure. — Paulina Likos, CNBC, 10 July 2026

These savings go well beyond plant operations, encompassing transmission buildout, fuel costs, storage requirements, and the need to overbuild renewable capacity to compensate for intermittency. — Ken Silverstein, Forbes.com, 22 Jan. 2026

But if Georgia Power overbuilds and there are no data centers to pay, other customers could shoulder those costs. — CBS News, 5 Dec. 2025

Trouble is, barriers to entry are also low—and that’s led the sector to overbuild in the past. — Brett Owens, Forbes, 25 Jan. 2023

Additionally, years of rampant demand spurred builders to overbuild in the early 2000s, flooding the country with a home surplus. — Erik Lundh, CNN, 22 Nov. 2022

Years of developers overbuilding shopping centers resulted in a bubble of retail space that ultimately burst. — Marc Bain, Quartz, 26 May 2020

Tokyo Olympic venues are relatively small in size, due in part to the organizing committee’s focus on not overbuilding and a push to repurpose venues from the 1964 Tokyo Games. — Rachel Bachman, WSJ, 16 Jan. 2020

Word History

First Known Use

1945, in the meaning defined at transitive sense

Rhymes for overbuild

• redistilled
• semiskilled
• unfulfilled
• backfilled
• distilled
• fulfilled
• infilled
• instilled
• rebuild
• refilled
• unfilled
• unskilled