overleverage

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noun

Excessive leverage.

“The company was severely overleveraged.”

OriginEnglish leverage ← Middle English over- ← Old English ofer- →
Scrabble 19
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Meanings

nounoverleverage (uncountable)
  1. uncountableExcessive leverage.
verboverleverage (third-person singular simple present overleverages, present participle overleveraging, simple past and past participle overleveraged)

present singular third person overleverages · participle present overleveraging · participle past overleveraged · past overleveraged

  1. transitivebusinessTo leverage excessively.

    The company was severely overleveraged.

    1 more example

    “Yes, there was overleveraging in the industry.

    2009 January 20, John Collins Rudolf, “Banks Foreclose on Builders With Perfect Records”, in New York Times

Origin

  1. Proto-Indo-European*úp
  2. Proto-Indo-European*upér
  3. Proto-Germanic*uber
  4. Old Englishofer-
  5. Middle Englishover-
  6. Englishover-
  7. Englishleverage
  8. Englishoverleverage

From over- + leverage.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

overleverage. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/overleverage

MLA

“overleverage.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/overleverage. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “overleverage,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/overleverage.

Source: overleverage on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.