Definition of "overwound" [overwound]

• Past tense and past participle of overwind. (verb)

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.

• "An overwound clock began unraveling in her chest, time spinning out of control as she fought for breath."
• "Barthelmess mostly fares okay, other than a few over-the-top speeches, but the fresh-faced Fairbanks can't shake a kind of gee-whiz naiveté, and William Janney, playing Scott's younger brother Donny, is even more overwound."
• "There's Lumiere, a candelabra with the pizzazz of Maurice Chevalier; Cogsworth (David Ogden Stiers), an overwound mantle clock with a taste for puns ( "If it's not baroque, don't fix it"); a warm English teapot (Angela Lansbury) and her baby cup, Chip."