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Overtaking   /ˈoʊvərtˌeɪkɪŋ/   Listen
verb
Overtake  v. t.  (past overtook; past part. overtaken; pres. part. overtaking)  
1.
To come up with in a race, pursuit, progress, or motion; also, To catch up with and move ahead of. "Follow after the men; and when thou dost overtake them, say... Wherefore have ye rewarded evil for good." "He had him overtaken in his flight."
2.
Hence: To surpass in production, achievement, etc.; as, although out of school for half a year due to illness, the student returned and overtook all the others to finish as valedictorian.
3.
To come upon from behind; to discover; to surprise; to capture; to overcome. "If a man be overtaken in a fault." "I shall see The winged vengeance overtake such children."
4.
Hence, figuratively, in the past participle (overtaken), drunken. (Obs.)
5.
To frustrate or render impossible or irrelevant; used mostly of plans, and commonly in the phrase overtaken by events; as, their careful marketing plan was overtaken by events.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Overtaking" Quotes from Famous Books



... a hog or two, and had to search long, sometimes, ere he found them. Peterkin was usually sent on this errand, when we wanted a pork chop (which was not seldom), because he was so active, and could run so wonderfully fast that he found no difficulty in overtaking the hogs; but, being dreadfully reckless, he almost invariably tumbled over stumps and stones in the course of his wild chase, and seldom returned home without having knocked the skin off his shins. Once, indeed, a more serious accident happened to ...
— The Coral Island - A Tale Of The Pacific Ocean • R. M. Ballantyne

... thing to do. She must go straight to George Fournel at Quebec. She knew only too well that Tardif was speeding thither as fast as horses could carry him. He had had several hours' start, but there was still a chance of overtaking him. And suppose she overtook him? She could not decide definitely what she should do, but she would do anything, sacrifice anything, to secure again that fatal document which, in George Fournel's hands, must bring a collapse worse than death. A dozen plans flashed before ...
— The Judgment House • Gilbert Parker

... received assistance from an unexpected quarter. One of the large bulls, his companions, charged after him with great fury, and soon overtaking the wounded beast, he struck him full in the side, throwing him over with a great shock on the muddy border of the lake. Here the wounded animal lay unable to rise, and his conqueror commenced a ...
— The Rifle and The Hound in Ceylon • Samuel White Baker

... emancipation of the negroes throughout the Southern States, if it took place to-morrow, would be the greatest curse the white man could inflict upon them. I also trust that I may have shadowed forth some useful idea, to assist my Southern friends in overtaking a gangrene which lies at their heart's core, and which every reflecting mind must see is eating into their vitals with fearful rapidity. My last and not my least sincere hope is, that some one among the many suggestions I have offered for the negro's ...
— Lands of the Slave and the Free - Cuba, The United States, and Canada • Henry A. Murray

... varied, and it was doubtless introduced by Venetian merchants from the Levant: A parrot belonging to Count Fiesco was discovered one day stealing some roast meat from the kitchen. The enraged cook, overtaking him, threw a kettle of boiling water at him, which completely scalded all the feathers from his head, and left the poor bird with a bare poll. Some time afterwards, as Count Fiesco was engaged in conversation with an abbot, the parrot, observing the shaven crown of his reverence, hopped ...
— Flowers from a Persian Garden and Other Papers • W. A. Clouston


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