diff --git a/src/components/colorbar/attributes.js b/src/components/colorbar/attributes.js
index 3869eadb7a1..ceaa3492e00 100644
--- a/src/components/colorbar/attributes.js
+++ b/src/components/colorbar/attributes.js
@@ -136,7 +136,13 @@ module.exports = overrideAll({
     tickvals: axesAttrs.tickvals,
     ticktext: axesAttrs.ticktext,
     ticks: extendFlat({}, axesAttrs.ticks, {dflt: ''}),
-    ticklabeloverflow: extendFlat({}, axesAttrs.ticklabeloverflow, {dflt: 'allow'}),
+    ticklabeloverflow: extendFlat({}, axesAttrs.ticklabeloverflow, {
+        description: [
+            'Determines how we handle tick labels that would overflow either the graph div or the domain of the axis.',
+            'The default value for inside tick labels is *hide past domain*.',
+            'In other cases the default is *hide past div*.'
+        ].join(' ')
+    }),
     ticklabelposition: {
         valType: 'enumerated',
         values: [