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overreach

   Also found in: Medical, Legal, Financial, Encyclopedia, Wikipedia, Hutchinson 0.01 sec.
o·ver·reach  (vr-rch)
v. o·ver·reached, o·ver·reach·ing, o·ver·reach·es
v.tr.
1. To reach or extend over or beyond.
2. To miss by reaching too far or attempting too much: overreach a goal.
3. To defeat (oneself) by going too far or by doing or trying to gain too much.
4. To get the better of, especially by deceitful cleverness; outwit.
v.intr.
1. To reach or go too far.
2. To overreach oneself.
3. To outwit or cheat others.
4. To strike the front part of a hind foot against the rear or side part of a forefoot or foreleg on the same side of the body. Used of a horse.

over·reach n.
over·reacher n.

overreach [ˌəʊvəˈriːtʃ]
vb
1. (tr) to defeat or thwart (oneself) by attempting to do or gain too much
2. (tr) to aim for but miss by going too far or attempting too much
3. to get the better of (a person) by trickery
4. (tr) to reach or extend beyond or over
5. (intr) to reach or go too far
6. (Individual Sports & Recreations / Horse Training, Riding & Manège) (intr) (of a horse) to strike the back of a forefoot with the edge of the opposite hind foot
ThesaurusLegend:  Synonyms Related Words Antonyms
Verb1.overreach - fail by aiming too high or trying too hard
go wrong, miscarry, fail - be unsuccessful; "Where do today's public schools fail?"; "The attempt to rescue the hostages failed miserably"
2.overreach - beat through cleverness and wit; "I beat the traffic"; "She outfoxed her competitors"
beat, beat out, vanquish, trounce, crush, shell - come out better in a competition, race, or conflict; "Agassi beat Becker in the tennis championship"; "We beat the competition"; "Harvard defeated Yale in the last football game"
outdo, outgo, outmatch, outperform, outstrip, surpass, exceed, surmount - be or do something to a greater degree; "her performance surpasses that of any other student I know"; "She outdoes all other athletes"; "This exceeds all my expectations"; "This car outperforms all others in its class"

overreach
overreach yourself try to be too clever, go too far, overdo it, bite off more than you can chew, be hoist with your own petard, have too many irons in the fire, defeat your own ends, have your schemes backfire or boomerang or rebound on you He overreached himself and lost much of his fortune.
Translations
overreach [ˌəʊvəˈriːtʃ] VT to overreach o.sir más allá de las propias posibilidades
the company has overreached itself and made unwise investmentsla compañía ha ido más allá de sus propias posibilidades y ha hecho inversiones poco sensatas
overreach over-reach [ˌəʊvərˈriːtʃ] vt
to overreach o.s. → vouloir trop en faire
overreach [ˌəʊvəˈriːtʃ] vt to overreach o.s.volere strafare
overreach [ˌəʊvəˈriːtʃ] vt to overreach o.s.volere strafare


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? Mentioned in ? References in classic literature
 
Logicians sometimes prove too much by an argument, and politicians often overreach themselves in a scheme.
It was possible she intended her omission as an impertinence, a visible irony, to show how she could overreach people who attempted to overreach her.
Ah,' said he, 'the King's daughter shall not overreach us;' and, loading his gun, he shot so cleverly, that he shot away the horse's skull from under the runner's head, without its hurting him.
 
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