Link Centre Dictionary

overtake

over·take

UK/ˈəʊ̯vəːteɪ̯k/ US/ˈoʊ̯vɚteɪ̯k/ uncommon

verb

1.

catch up with and possibly overtake

  • “The Rolls Royce caught us near the exit ramp”
2.

travel past

  • “The sports car passed all the trucks”
Synonyms
3.

overcome, as with emotions or perceptual stimuli

Origin

From Middle English overtaken, likely a replacement alteration (as the Middle English verb taken replaced nimen (“to take”)), of Middle English overnimen (“to overtake”), from Old English oferniman (“to take by surprise, overtake”), equivalent to over- + take.

Phrases

  • Not to be confused with take over

Related words

Broader terms

Related verbs

Entails

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.