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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



... still. In the Bahr-el-Ghazal, the last embers of resistance were stamped out with the capture of Lupton Bey, and through the whole of that vast province three times the size of England—every trace of the Egyptian Government was obliterated. Still farther south the same fate was rapidly overtaking Equatoria, where Emir Pasha, withdrawing into the unexplored depths of Central Africa, carried with him the last vestiges of the old order. The Mahdi himself still lingered in his headquarters at El Obeid; but, on the rising of the tribes round Khartoum, he had decided that the time for an offensive ...
— Eminent Victorians • Lytton Strachey

... galloped beside the Prince, overtaking the marching army, until as they cantered into the little mud-walled city of Heraclea a second messenger from the van ...
— A Victor of Salamis • William Stearns Davis

... came near the little gate where he stood she stopped dead, seemed to hesitate a moment, and then turned as though to go back. Determined to set his doubts at rest Gifford passed quickly through the gate and followed her at an overtaking pace. Evidently sensible of her pursuit, the woman quickened her steps and, as Gifford gained on her, turned quickly from the path, threading her way among the graves to escape him. She had gone but a few steps when in her hurry she tripped over the ...
— The Hunt Ball Mystery • Magnay, William

... night; even when he was compelled to take thought for food, he would only look about for something eatable where he was, and when he found some bit, he would snatch it up and eat it hurriedly; then overtaking the oyster immediately, he would sate himself again with the sight he loved. At length a fisherman, they say, noticed what was passing, but in terror of the monster he recoiled from the danger; however, he reported the whole matter to the king, Perozes. Now when Perozes ...
— History of the Wars, Books I and II (of 8) - The Persian War • Procopius

... With the wonderful tact of her sex, she seemed to have commenced the acquaintance that evening. That night, for the first time, Dolignan was in love. I will spare the reader all a lover's arts, by which he succeeded in dining where she dined, in dancing where she danced, in overtaking her by accident when she rode. His devotion followed her to church, where the dragoon was rewarded by learning there is a world where they neither polk nor smoke,—the two capital abominations ...
— Stories of Comedy • Various


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