overreached

Verb

overreach (third-person singular simple present overreaches, present participle overreaching, simple past and past participle overreached or (obsolete) overraught)

1. (ambitransitive) To reach above or beyond, especially to an excessive degree.
   • [...] 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; [...]1616 May 7, Francis Bacon, “A Letter to the King, with His Majesty’s Observations on It”, in Basil Montagu, editor, The Works of Francis Bacon, Lord Chancellor of England, new edition, volume VI...

   Synonyms:

   exceed, excel, forpass, go beyond, breach, cap, outreach, outcompass, outstep, outstrip

   1. (ambitransitive, transitive) To defeat or override a person's interest in property; (UK, specifically) of a holder of the legal title of real property: by mortgaging or selling the legal title to a third party, to cause another person's equitable right in the property to be dissolved and to be replaced by an equitable right in the money received from the third party.
      • [A]n equitable mortgage, by deposit of deeds to a person, bona fide, and without notice, will give him a preferable equity; and will overreach the vendor's equitable lien on the estate for any part of the purchase-money.1813, Edward Burtenshaw Sugden, “Of the Vendor’s Lien on the Estate Sold for the Purchase-money, if Not Paid”, in A Practical Treatise of the Law of Vendors & Purchasers of Estates, 4th edition...
2. (ambitransitive, figuratively) To do something beyond an appropriate limit, or beyond one's ability; to overextend.
   • The British Empire would not have endured so long had it not been for a discreet sense of moderation in its rulers, generation after generation. The coolness displayed towards the colonies by successive British Governments has at least prevented the empire-builders from overreaching themselves.1947, C[harles] E[dmund] Carrington, “Imperialism in Retreat”, in An Exposition of Empire (Current Problems; 28), Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: At the University Press, →OCLC, page 110
3. (ambitransitive, reflexive) Of a horse: to strike the heel of a forefoot with the toe of a hindfoot.
   • Attinto, [...] Alſo when a horſe is tainted or hurt, or ouerreacheth one foote with another, and withal doth hurt a ſinew.1598, John Florio, “Attinto”, in A Worlde of Words, or Most Copious, and Exact Dictionarie in Italian and English, […], London: […] Arnold Hatfield for Edw[ard] Blount, →OCLC, page 32, column 3
4. (ambitransitive, archaic) To deceive, to swindle.
   • Say, thou that by thy cunning overreachest thy brother in buying, selling, or bargaining, or deceivest the trust reposed in thee by thy friend, couldst thou brook to be in like sort cheated thyself?1634, Robert Sanderson, “Sermon VI.”, in William Jacobson, compiler, The Works of Robert Sanderson, D.D. sometime Bishop of Lincoln, volume II, Oxford, Oxfordshire: University Press, published 1854...

   Synonyms:

   cheat, defraud, abuse, beglammer, counterfeit, deceive, catch, trap into, dissemble, dissimulate

5. (intransitive) To sail on one tack farther than is necessary.
   • Where a sail vessel close hauled and a steam vessel approach so as to involve risk of collision, the rule requiring the sail vessel to keep her course requires her to beat out her tack. [...] She is not required to tack short on signal from the steam vessel when there is danger in so doing, nor...1903, “Ships and Shipping”, in David S. Garland and Lucius P. McGehee, under the supervision of James Cockcroft, editors, The American and English Encyclopædia of Law, 2nd edition, volume XXV...

See all 9 meanings of overreach