<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0//EN"> <html> <head> <style> div { width: 100px; height: 100px; } .green { background-color: green; } .red { background-color: red; } .absolute { position: absolute; top:100px; left:100px; } .relative { position: relative; top:100px; left:100px; } .overflow { overflow: hidden; } </style> <body> You should see a 100x100 green square below. This test makes sure overflow uses containing blocks when clipping. <div class="green overflow"> <div class="red relative"> <div class="absolute red"></div> </div> </div>