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Definition of "overcasting" [overcasting]

  • The act of sewing raw edges of material with long, overlying stitches to prevent raveling. (noun)
  • The stitching so done. (noun)
  • The stitch used to overcast. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "overcasting" in a sentence
  • "And the things that sergers can do well, such as overcasting raw edges, making blind hems, rolled, hems, and the like, a standard sewing machine can usually do, although it may take a bit more fiddling."
  • "There are three different stitches that can be used for securing the edge of eyelets or slits: the basic overcasting stitch whip stitch, blanket stitch and buttonhole stitch."
  • "In the first dawn of my manhood the old painters of Italy had taught me their dangerous worship of the beauty that is more than mortal, but those images all seemed shadowy now, and floated before me so dimly, the one overcasting the other, that they left me no one sweet idol on which I could look and look again and say,"