overmatch

present singular third person overmatches · participle present overmatching · participle past overmatched · past overmatched

1. intransitivetransitiveTo match more than intended.

   The regular expression overmatched, capturing the entire paragraph instead of the specific sentence.

2. To be more than equal to or a match for, to surpass; hence, to conquer, vanquish.

   At Lemster, for her Wooll whose Staple doth excell, And seemes to over-match the golden Phrygian Fell.

   1612, Michael Drayton, Poly-Olbion, song 7 p. 104

   1 more example

   And wel his merits ſhew him to be made His Fortunes maiſter, and the king of men. That could perſwade at ſuch a ſodaine pinch, With reaſons of his valour and his life, A thouſand ſworne and ouer-matching foes:

   c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act II, scene i

3. transitiveTo marry (someone) to a superior.

   If a yeoman have one sole daughter, he must overmatch her, above her birth and calling, to a gentleman forsooth, because of her great portion […]

   1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC

plural overmatches

1. A match in which one opponent is greatly superior to the other.

   […] we can increase the velocity of that force, so as to make it an overmatch for its antagonist.

   1748, David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Oxford ed., ¶13, published 2007

2. An opponent who is more than a match for another; one who cannot be defeated.

   For Memnon […] fought hand to hand with his overmatch, and met his boyish and most dolorous death beneath the walls of Troy.

   1852, Herman Melville, Pierre; or The Ambiguities