Given an element with a CSS value for 'max-height', this plugin will allow you to wrap any text that overflows the bounds of the element with a specified class name.

gistfile1.txt

/**
 * Given an element with a CSS value for 'max-height', this plugin will allow you
 * to wrap any text that overflows the bounds of the element with a specified class
 * name.
 *
 * Example:
 *
 * $(".container").trevanify('wrapping_class');
 */
$.fn.trevanify = function(overflow_class) {
	var width = $(this).width(),
		height = $(this).height(),
		$tmpContainer = $("<div></div>"),
		maxHeight = parseInt($(this).css('max-height'), 10) || null,
		overflow = '',
		start;
	if ( maxHeight === null ) {
		throw 'Target must have a value specified for max-height.';
	}
	$tmpContainer.css({
		'width': width,
		'max-width': width,
		'position': 'absolute',
		'left': -20000,
		'top': -20000
	});
	$('body').append($tmpContainer);
	var text = $.trim($(this).text());
	$(this).text(text);
	var content = $(this).contents().first();
		var txt_array = text.split(''),
			previousContent,
			previousText;
	for ( var i = 0; i < txt_array.length; i++ ) {
		if ( overflow || $tmpContainer.height() > maxHeight ) {
			$tmpContainer.html(previousContent);
			if ( previousText ) {
				overflow += previousText + txt_array[i];
				previousText = null;
			} else {
				overflow += txt_array[i];
			}
		} else {
			previousContent = $tmpContainer.html();
			previousText = txt_array[i];
			$tmpContainer.html(previousContent + txt_array[i]);
			start = i;
		}
	}
	var tmp = text.split(''),
	overflow_class = overflow_class || 'overflow';
	replacement = "<span class='" + overflow_class + "'>" + overflow + "</span>";
	tmp.splice(start, tmp.length - start, replacement);
	tmp = tmp.join('');
	$(this).html(tmp);
};