overcrowding

overcrowding

1. present participle and gerund of overcrowd

overcrowding (countable and uncountable, plural overcrowdings)

1. The situation where a space holds more occupants than it can comfortably accommodate.
   • 1846, Thomas Campbell Foster, Letters on the Condition of the People of Ireland, page 270:

     […] there are sublettings, overcrowdings of lands, clearances, and emigrations going on; and want of employment, with consequent destitution and wretchedness is the complaint of the majority of the inhabitants.

   • 1961 October, “The winter timetables of British Railways: Southern Region”, in Trains Illustrated, pages 593–594:

     An extra rush-hour train has eased overcrowding of the former 5.39 p.m. to Salisbury; this now leaves at 5.43 and an additional electric service to Alton departs at 5.39 p.m.

   • 2019 October 23, Industry Insider, “Continued rail growth”, in RAIL, page 72:

     Department for Transport statistics show that since 2010 overcrowding in the morning peak at 11 cities has risen by 48%, to reach 280,000 standing passengers daily.

   • 2022 November 16, Paul Bigland, “From rural branches to high-speed arteries”, in RAIL, number 970, page 55:

     Stops at Fareham, Havant and Chichester add to the cattle-like conditions aboard, although as the door nearest me is blocked by prams and suitcases, my coach is protected from the worst overcrowding.