overzealous

adjective

over·​zeal·​ous ˌō-vər-ˈze-ləs 

: too zealous : having or showing too much zeal : excessively eager, enthusiastic, or fervent

overzealous parents

overzealous workers

… another version of the overzealous monitoring that has produced kids who leave for college without ever having crossed the street by themselves.

—Peggy Orenstein

The village saw the orders as unwarranted interference from an overzealous state bureaucracy and promptly appealed.

—Joe Treen and S. Avery Brown

overzealously adverb

… has been frequently accused by its critics of acting recklessly, overzealously, and even, at times, illegally.

—Steve Lustgarden

overzealousness noun

Jewell was annoyed that press descriptions of him always emphasized his "overzealousness"; he considers himself a man of details.

—Marie Brenner

Examples of overzealous in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

So many Hocus Pocus fans have started showing up during peak season that the city of just under 50,000 has had to add an extra police presence at certain filming locations in order to keep overzealous fans in check. —Shannon Carlin, Rolling Stone, 31 Oct. 2024

Avari and his wife, Margaret Walker, have been married since 1980. 09 of 10 Bernard Fox (Captain Winston Havelock) Bernard Fox portrayed the overzealous fighter pilot Captain Winston Havelock. —Andrew Walsh, EW.com, 26 Oct. 2024

They were long considered outliers, places where a handful of overzealous officials liberally applied the state’s chemical endangerment law to hundreds of pregnant women. —Tribune News Service, The Mercury News, 2 Oct. 2024

The investigation blames administrators’ lack of due diligence on their overzealous pursuit of such a transformative gift and flawed understanding of private stock donations. —Prarthana Prakash, Fortune, 8 Aug. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

circa 1628, in the meaning defined above