overdo

verb

1. 1

   To do too much; to exceed what is proper or true in doing; to carry too far.

   I overdid the sweets during the holidays and put on some weight.

   […] o’erstep not the modesty of nature: for anything so overdone is from the purpose of playing, whose end […] is to hold, as ’twere, the mirror up to nature;

   [B]elieve me, / That servant overdoes, that’s too officious; / And in presuming to direct your master, / You argue him of weakness, and your self / Of arrogance and impertinence.

   The merchant importers […] endeavour, as well as they can, to suit their occasional importations to what, they judge, is likely to be the immediate demand. With all their attention, however, they sometimes over-do the business, and sometimes under-do it.

2. 2

   To cook for too long.

   to overdo the meat

   [He] talked of a feast where he had been the day before, but that the venison was over-done.

   Well, for the future, when you cook another whale-steak for my private table here, the capstan, I’ll tell you what to do so as not to spoil it by overdoing. Hold the steak in one hand, and show a live coal to it with the other; that done, dish it; d’ye hear?

3. 3

   To give (someone or something) too much work; to require too much effort or strength of (someone); to use up too much of (something).

   to overdo one’s strength

   Good God! hovv poore a thing is vvretched man? / So fraile, that let him ſtriue the beſt he can, / VVith euery little blaſt hee’s ouerdon.

   And you’re so weak I’le not pursue you, For fear lest I should overdo you.

   […] look abroad and see who are the people that complain of weariness, listlessness, and dejection? You will not find them among such as are overdone with work, but with pleasure.

4. 4

   obsoleteTo do more than (someone); to do (something) to a greater extent.

   In a delicate Garden, where Art hath shewed it’s vtmost, yee shall meet with Roses, Gillyflowers, and Fountaines of Alabaster and Iasper; but thou wilt not so much admire this, as if thou shouldst light on these dainties in a Desert, or in some craggie Mountain, where the hand of nature shall ouerdoe that of art and Industrie.

   [...] it would be their shame for ever to be overdone in mischiefe, nor were they here exceeded.

   the Turks delight but little in the outward Ornament of Houses, nor aspire in the least to overdo each other in the Europaean Custom of Polite and Solid Architecture, yet do they far more exceed us in the rich Ornaments and Contrivances of their Pavilions,

   But in the field were Lancelot’s kith and kin, […] / Strong men, and wrathful that a stranger knight / Should do and almost overdo the deeds / Of Lancelot;

Forms

past tense

overdid

past participle

overdone

present participle

overdoing

third person singular

overdoes