overreach
/ˌoʊvə(ɹ)ˈɹit͡ʃ/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.64 in modern English
17
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
3
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
To do something beyond an appropriate limit, or beyond one's ability; to overextend.
noun
An act of extending or reaching over, especially if too far or too much; overextension.
Countable; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "[...] I cannot forget what the poet Martial saith; "O quantum est subitis casibus ingenium!" signifying, that accident is many times more subtle than foresight, and overreacheth expectation; [...]"
- "Writhing under his deficiency of means, he [William Hazlitt] struggled to supersede practice, overreach time, and bound at once to the conclusion."
- "The most eloquent manner of reading and of speaking, is the most easy of attainment, if sought for through the proper channel; for it is as simple as it is natural. But many who aim at it, fail by the very efforts adopted to gain it. They overreach the mark. They shoot too high. Instead of breathing forth their sentiments in the fervid glow of simple nature, which always warms, and animates, and interests the hearer, they work themselves up into a sort of frigid bombast, which chills and petrifies him."
- "[B]eneath [the fastigium of Conocephalus hebes, a species of bush-cricket], the whole forms a depending pointed cone, whose sides are scarcely less than a right angle with each other, and are separated by a pretty wide frontal incisure, by the slightly tuberculated tip of the front of the face which it overreaches."
- "In September 1926, [...] he [Patrick Hepburn] overreached his strength in his walks over the mountains and passes of his beloved Lake district, suffered leg injuries, and "was found in an exhausted condition and taken to a neighboring inn.""
- "Don't overreach when reaching for the function keys. This causes the finger tendons to stretch. Move your hand closer to the desired key before pressing it."
Etymology
The verb is from Middle English overrechen (“to rise above; to extend beyond or over; to encroach; to catch, overtake; to reach; to obtain wrongfully (?); to take up (a book) to revise it”) [and other forms], equivalent to over- + reach; the noun is derived from the verb or from the phrase to reach over.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˌoʊvə(ɹ)ˈɹit͡ʃ/
- British English: /ˌəʊvəˈɹiːt͡ʃ/
Usage
Inflected Forms
Derived Forms
Phrases
overreach boot