Word.ws English Dictionary

overcarry

overcarry verb: to carry too far, or beyond the proper point.

Verb

overcarry (third-person singular simple present overcarries, present participle overcarrying, simple past and past participle overcarried)

  1. (transitive) To carry too far, or beyond the proper point.
    • In fact, the scales could be weighted still more heavily in favour of completing the sorting at Leicester, even if this demanded 20min allowance, since not doing the work there inevitably results in overcarrying of parcels; and that could mean delay in delivery and complaints from the customer.1964 February, Warren Smith, “The Midland's accelerated timetable”, in Modern Railways, page 99
    • Soe they resolved with losse of their lives to recover or to end the losse of theire libertie , being overcarried indifferently with hate and disdaine , two mightie passions to drive on disordered desiresa. 1628 (date written), John Hayward, The Life, and Raigne of King Edward the Sixt, London: […] [Eliot’s Court Press, and J. Lichfield at Oxford?] for Iohn Partridge, […], published 1630, →OCLC
  2. (intransitive) To go to excess.

Forms of overcarry

third-person singular presentovercarries
present participleovercarrying
past participleovercarried
pastovercarried

Origin of overcarry

From Middle English overcarien, equivalent to over- + carry.

Questions about overcarry

What does overcarry mean?
Overcarry means to carry too far, or beyond the proper point.
What part of speech is overcarry?
Overcarry is a verb.
What is the past tense of overcarry?
The past tense of overcarry is overcarried.

Words near overcarry in the dictionary

  1. overcarks
  2. overcarriage
  3. overcarriages
  4. overcarried
  5. overcarries
  6. overcarry
  7. overcarrying
  8. overcarve
  9. overcarved
  10. overcarves
  11. overcarving

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: overcarry (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.

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