overzealous

adjective

over·​zeal·​ous ˌō-vər-ˈze-ləs 

: too zealous : having or showing too much zeal : excessively eager, enthusiastic, or fervent

overzealous parents

overzealous workers

… another version of the overzealous monitoring that has produced kids who leave for college without ever having crossed the street by themselves.

—Peggy Orenstein

The village saw the orders as unwarranted interference from an overzealous state bureaucracy and promptly appealed.

—Joe Treen and S. Avery Brown

overzealously adverb

… has been frequently accused by its critics of acting recklessly, overzealously, and even, at times, illegally.

—Steve Lustgarden

overzealousness noun

Jewell was annoyed that press descriptions of him always emphasized his "overzealousness"; he considers himself a man of details.

—Marie Brenner

Examples of overzealous in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The rise of social media does these overzealous Oscar hopefuls no favors. — Rebecca Ford, Vanity Fair, 2 Oct. 2026

Roughly 50% of the merchants that Adyen surveyed reported an increase in the number of false declines—legitimate orders that overzealous fraud filters reject. — Mark Beare, Forbes.com, 28 Sep. 2026

If yours are still recovering from an overzealous pair of tweezers, Beyoncé’s Cécred may have a solution. — Camila Quimper, Footwear News, 23 Sep. 2026

Vcg | Visual China Group | Getty Images When the first employee walks into a company's human resources department to complain about a robot co-worker or overzealous AI scheduling assistant, what exactly is HR supposed to do? — Trevor Laurence Jockims, CNBC, 20 Sep. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

circa 1628, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for overzealous

• bellis
• felis
• fellas
• jealous
• pelisse
• trellis
• zealous
• michaelis
• nucellus
• ocellus