overmatch
English edit
Etymology edit
From Middle English overmacchen, equivalent to over- + match.
Pronunciation edit
Verb edit
overmatch (third-person singular simple present overmatches, present participle overmatching, simple past and past participle overmatched)
- (transitive, intransitive) To match more than intended.
- The regular expression overmatched, capturing the entire paragraph instead of the specific sentence.
- To be more than equal to or a match for, to surpass; hence, to conquer, vanquish.
- c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act II, scene i:
- And wel his merits ſhew him to be made
His Fortunes maiſter, and the king of men.
That could perſwade at ſuch a ſodaine pinch,
With reaſons of his valour and his life,
A thouſand ſworne and ouer-matching foes:
- 1612, Michael Drayton, Poly-Olbion, song 7 p. 104:
- At Lemster, for her Wooll whose Staple doth excell,
And seemes to over-match the golden Phrygian Fell.
- To marry to a superior.
- 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC:
- he must overmatch her above her birth and calling
Derived terms edit
Noun edit
overmatch (plural overmatches)
- A match in which one opponent is greatly superior to the other.
- 1748, David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding[1], Oxford ed., ¶13, published 2007:
- […] we can increase the velocity of that force, so as to make it an overmatch for its antagonist.
- An opponent who is more than a match for another; one who cannot be defeated.