- Overtaken
- Overtake O`ver*take", v. t. [imp. {Overtook}; p. p.
{Overtaken}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Overtaking}.]
[1913 Webster]
1. To come up with in a race, pursuit, progress, or motion;
also, to catch up with and move ahead of.
[1913 Webster +PJC]
Follow after the men; and when thou dost overtake them, say . . . Wherefore have ye rewarded evil for good. --Gen. xliv. 4. [1913 Webster]
He had him overtaken in his flight. --Spenser. [1913 Webster]
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. [PJC]
3. To come upon from behind; to discover; to surprise; to capture; to overcome. [1913 Webster]
If a man be overtaken in a fault. --Gal. vi. 1 [1913 Webster]
I shall see The winged vengeance overtake such children. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
4. Hence, figuratively, in the past participle (overtaken), drunken. [Obs.] --Holland. [1913 Webster]
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. [PJC]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English. 2000.
