overtask

present singular third person overtasks · participle present overtasking · participle past overtasked · past overtasked

1. transitiveTo task too heavily; to give someone or something too many tasks; to overburden.

   Think of it! the strength of one hundred horses overtasked day by day to provide this magic powder, through which the tired real horse is to drag the plough in so many thousands of distant acres!

   1873, Various, Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science

   3 more examples

   We were almost always under fire from the enemy; but with the utmost cheerfulness, and even, I may say, good-humour, the whole of the infantry did all in their power to lighten the work of the overtasked artillerymen: comrades we were, all striving for the accomplishment of one purpose--that of bringing swift and sure destruction on the rebels who had for so long a period successfully resisted our arms.

   1910, Charles John Griffiths, A Narrative Of The Siege Of Delhi

   Each man, after death, was called upon to make the "Negative Confession," to prove that he had not sinned against his fellows, that he had not oppressed or taken bribes, had not judged wrongfully, had not injured a slave or overtasked the poor man, had not murdered or stolen, lied or committed adultery, had not given short weight or robbed the gods and the dead, had made none to "hunger" or "weep."

   1899, Archibald Sayce, Early Israel and the Surrounding Nations

   But when, on the contrary, he is overtasked, and more ideas are forced upon his attention than his capacity can receive, the mind becomes disturbed and confused, the mental perception becomes cloudy and indistinct, and all that is communicated in these circumstances is absolutely lost.

   1840, James Gall, A Practical Enquiry into the Philosophy of Education