overwork

verb

1. (transitive)To make (someone or something) work too hard.

   “to overwork a horse”

   “For some years locomotives and coaches have been overworked and undermaintained to a degree without precedent in British railway history, and the leeway in maintenance now to be made up is very great.”

   “The cracking sound, he explained, as far as I, a non-plumber, could understand, was the sound of the overworked, undermaintained and weirdly installed heating unit’s core rupturing and spilling water into the basement.”

   “If you live in Washington D.C., Houston or Atlanta, it might be time to take a vacation. Those three cities, followed by Seattle and Chicago, are the most overworked cities in the United States, according to a study released by the mobile technology company Kisi this past week.”

   “It turns out that overworking your brain with either physical or mental exercise may lower your ability to delay self-gratification.”

2. (intransitive)To work too hard.
3. (transitive)To fill too full of work; to crowd with labour.

   “My days with toil are overwrought.”

4. (transitive)To decorate all over.

noun

1. (uncountable)A superstructure.
2. (uncountable)Excessive work.

   “Various disordered conditions consequent upon overwork, which are characteristic of modern civilisation.”

   “He says that more men are killed by overwork than the importance of this world justifies. He maintains that overwork slew Pansay who died under his hands about three years ago.”

   “[…] it had obtained from its constituents rather antiquated and inefficient equipment, which scarcely stood up to overwork; […].”

   “When it comes to overwork, denial looms large.”

   “The Japanese term for sudden death from overwork.”