over the top
over the top adjective: beyond normal, expected, or reasonable limits; outrageous.
Adjective
over the top (comparative more over the top, superlative most over the top)
- Beyond normal, expected, or reasonable limits; outrageous.
- I had come to regard the New Capitalism as an experiment till, in 1929, the whole thing went over the top and slid down to an utter collapse.1938, Lincoln Steffens, Granville Hicks, Carl Sandburg, The Letters of Lincoln Steffens, Volume 2, page 1007
- You might have expected a pop star known for shows in which she has someone vomit paint on to the stage to come up with something similarly over the top for a live rendition of The Sound of Music. But Gaga chose to take the traditional route.2015 February 23, “Oscars 2015: 10 things we learned”, in The Guardian (London)
- Synonyms:
- excessive, exaggerated, OTT, too much
- Delivered across the Internet to a television or similar device.
- The question was you don't have to hard cut the network over from proprietary to open. You can actually do it in stages and this device can lay over the top of existing proprietary networks.2004 August 18, “ARRIS Investor Conference Webcast - Final”, in Fair Disclosure Wire
- Back to the BYOA strategy, that we'll continue to create, you know, a BYOA product that we sell over the top, is that there will be a lot of customers that will want to do business with us that way.2005 February 4, “Q4 2004 Time Warner Inc. Earnings Conference Call - Final”, in Fair Disclosure Wire
- Downward onto plants in the field, as contrasted with other routes of administration.
- over-the-top dicamba for dicamba-tolerant crops
Adverb (1)
over the top (comparative more over the top, superlative most over the top)
- Egregiously; beyond compare.
- On InfoWars, Alex Jones told his audience, "This is over the top sickening. Next they'll say Jeffrey Epstein never even existed. This is the swamp winning. No one is buying this."2025 July 10, Jesus Mesa, “'We've Been Played': MAGA Faces Its Own Disappointment With Trump”, in Newsweek
Adverb (2)
over the top (comparative more over the top, superlative most over the top)
over the top meaning in Tamil and Thai
over the top in Tamil
- வரம்புக்கு மேல்
over the top in Thai
- beyond normal, expected, or reasonable limits; excessive; exaggerated
- เว่อร์ wə̂ə
Synonyms of over the top
Forms of over the top
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more over the top |
| superlative | most over the top |
| alternative form | over-the-top |
| Adverb | |
| comparative | more over the top |
| superlative | most over the top |
Origin of over the top
The adjectival form first appears c. 1935. See cite below. The adverbial form (in reference to World War I) first appears c. 1915.
Questions about over the top
- What does over the top mean?
- Over the top means beyond normal, expected, or reasonable limits; outrageous.
- What is over the top in Tamil?
- Over the top in Tamil is வரம்புக்கு மேல். See Over the top meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is over the top?
- Over the top can be an adjective or an adverb.
Words near over the top in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: over the top (page history and authors); over the top (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-over the top.ogg.
Cite this entry: “over the top.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/over_the_top. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.