From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishovercomeo‧ver‧come /ˌəʊvəˈkʌm $ ˌoʊvər-/ ●●○ W3 verb (past tense overcame /-ˈkeɪm/, past participle overcome) [transitive] 1 DEAL WITHto successfully control a feeling or problem that prevents you from achieving something He struggled to overcome his shyness. Her financial problems could no longer be overcome.2 if someone is overcome by smoke or gas, they become extremely sick or unconscious because they breathe it The engineer was working on the freezer when he was overcome by gas.Grammar Overcome is usually passive in this meaning.3 FEEL HAPPY/FRIGHTENED/BORED ETCif someone is overcome by emotion, they cannot behave normally because they feel the emotion so stronglybe overcome by/with something Charles was overcome with grief.Grammar Overcome is usually passive in this meaning.4 WINto fight and win against someone or something SYN defeat Australia overcame the Netherlands 2–1.→ See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
overcome• One of the lessons of baseball is, adversity can be overcome.• And its technical skill, vast financial reserves and marketing savvy give it the potential to overcome any early disadvantage.• Five employees were overcome by smoke.• However, these difficulties were overcome by the efforts of devoted officers.• Sometimes overcoming enormous odds, mostly because of racial prejudice, black athletes changed the sporting landscape in the United States.• She felt she could never forgive herself, but when she got there, the beauty of the place overcame her again.• I don't think he'll ever overcome his fear of flying.• I'd like to be able to overcome that feeling that it was a problem to everybody else.• Sara had overcome the disadvantages of her background to become a successful lawyer.• Rival, patriarchal faiths never entirely overcame the worship of this deity, nor will they ever do so.• It had left him alone to think about the problems he had to face and how he would overcome them.• New York overcame Washington in the final game.• I was overcome with an irresistible urge to hit him.Origin overcome Old English ofercuman 