Overhydrate

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To consume an excessive amount of water so that the body's fluid and electrolyte balance is disrupted
2. Taking in far more water than the body can safely process, leading to dangerously diluted blood and tissues
3. Drinking so much water that the normal balance of fluids and salts in the body becomes harmfully upset

Etymology: "Overhydrate" is simply the prefix "over-", meaning excessively or too much, joined to "hydrate," which comes from the Greek "hydor," meaning water, through the chemical sense of combining with water. Put together, the verb describes taking in more water than the body can safely handle, or more generally, supplying too much water to something. The prefix does most of the work here. "Over-" has been productive in English for centuries, and it attaches freely to verbs to signal excess, as in "overeat" or "overwork." Reading the word, you can recover its meaning without any help: to hydrate too much.

Synonyms: overwater, waterlog

Antonyms: dehydrate