overgrown vegetation

Meanings

1. 1phraseuncountable

   Plants that have grown too tall and thick because nobody has cut or cleared them.

   Grammar: Used as an uncountable noun phrase: overgrown vegetation was blocking the path.

   Patterns

   • clear overgrown vegetation
   • be covered in overgrown vegetation
   • overgrown vegetation along something

   The old railway line is now hidden under overgrown vegetation.

   Workers spent two days clearing overgrown vegetation from the canal bank.

   Overgrown vegetation around the house made it look abandoned.

2. 2phraseuncountable

   A mass of wild plants growing out of control in a place where they are not wanted.

   Grammar: Often follows 'a tangle of' or 'a mass of' when you want to count it indirectly.

   Patterns

   • a tangle of overgrown vegetation
   • cut back overgrown vegetation

   A tangle of overgrown vegetation covered the garden wall.

   They cut back the overgrown vegetation so the light could reach the windows.

Common combinations

dense overgrown vegetation

Dense overgrown vegetation made the field impossible to cross.

clear overgrown vegetation

The council hired a team to clear overgrown vegetation from the footpath.

cut back overgrown vegetation

In spring we cut back the overgrown vegetation behind the shed.

be covered in overgrown vegetation

The ruins are covered in overgrown vegetation.

overgrown vegetation along the river

Overgrown vegetation along the river is a problem for boats.

Synonyms and how they differ

undergrowth

Undergrowth means the low plants and bushes beneath trees in a forest; overgrown vegetation stresses that the plants have been left to grow too much.

scrub

Scrub is low, rough bushes in dry or wild land; overgrown vegetation can be any unwanted plants, including tall grass and weeds.

weeds

Weeds are unwanted plants in a garden or field; overgrown vegetation is a wider term covering everything that has grown too thick.

Opposites

Word family

overgrow verb

to grow too large or too fast, or to cover something by growing over it

overgrown adjective

covered with plants that have grown too much, or (of a child) grown too old for something

overgrowth noun

an excessive amount of growth, especially of plants or tissue

Commonly confused: overgrown vegetation or overgrown?

Practice

Make it your own

Write a sentence using “overgrown vegetation”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.

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