overtake
English Edit
Etymology Edit
From Middle English overtaken, likely an replacement alteration (as the Middle English verb taken replaced nimen (“to take”)), of Middle English overnimen (“to overtake”), from Old English oferniman (“to take by surprise, overtake”), equivalent to over- + take.
Pronunciation Edit
- (verb)
- (noun)
Verb Edit
overtake (third-person singular simple present overtakes, present participle overtaking, simple past overtook, past participle overtaken)
- To pass a slower moving object or entity (on the side closest to oncoming traffic).
- Antonym: undertake (to pass a slower moving vehicle on the curbside)
- The racehorse overtook the lead pack on the last turn.
- The car was so slow we were overtaken by a bus.
- 2019 October, “Funding for 20tph East London service”, in Modern Railways, page 18:
- The station is planned to include platform loops enabling fast trains to overtake slower ones and is expected to be served by at least four trains per hour towards London.
- (economics) To become greater than something else
- To occur unexpectedly; take by surprise; surprise and overcome; carry away
- Our plans were overtaken by events.
- 1609, William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 34”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. […][1], London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley, →OCLC:
Translations Edit
to pass a more slowly moving object
|
to catch up with, but not pass
economics: to become greater than something else
to occur unexpectedly take by surprise; surprise and overcome
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See also Edit
Noun Edit
overtake (plural overtakes)
- An act of overtaking; an overtaking maneuver.
- There wasn't enough distance left before the bend for an overtake, so I had to trundle behind the tractor for another mile.
Anagrams Edit
Norwegian Nynorsk Edit
Verb Edit
overtake (present tense overtek, past tense overtok, past participle overteke, passive infinitive overtakast, present participle overtakande, imperative overtak)
- Alternative form of overtaka