Overcome

Part of speech: verb

Pronunciation: /ˌəʊ.vəˈkʌm/

Definitions

1. To successfully deal with or gain control over a problem, difficulty, or challenging emotion
2. To prevail over obstacles, resolve challenges, or conquer difficult emotions
3. To triumph against adversity, manage hardships, or defeat negative feelings

Etymology: Overcome is about as plain as English compounds get: "over" plus "come," with Old English roots reaching back before the Norman Conquer. Its earliest form, Old English "ofercuman," meant to overtake, subdue, or conquer, which is close to the physical sense of coming over or across something. The idea of getting on top of an obstacle by moving over it lies behind the modern sense. The same pattern shows up across the Germanic languages. Dutch "overkomen," German "überkommen," Danish "overkomme," and Swedish "överkomma" all share the construction, so the word was not an English invention but part of a shared inheritance. Over the centuries, the sense of coming over a hazard drifted toward physically or mentally mastering it. The modern meaning of successfully dealing with a difficulty is a natural extension of that older idea of getting the better of something.

Synonyms: conquer, defeat, surmount, vanquish, master

Antonyms: yield, fail, surrender, submit, succumb