Overbearing means domineering. You might find it difficult to play the piano as your overbearing instructor criticizes every key you touch.
The adjective overbearing typically describes a person who is haughty and dictatorial. Someone considered to be overbearing or arrogant would unlikely also be called “kind” or “modest,” which are antonyms of overbearing. Overbearing also means “repressing” or “overwhelming.” Thomas Jefferson uses this definition in his decree, “If the freedom of religion, guaranteed to us by law in theory, can ever rise in practice under the overbearing inquisition of public opinion, then and only then will truth, prevail over fanaticism.”
