▪ I. overpraise, n.
(ˈəʊvəˈpreɪz)
[over- 29 b.]
Excessive praise; praise beyond what is deserved.
| 1694 Dryden Love Triumphant i. i, This over-praise You give his worth, in any other mouth, Were villainy to me. 1875 Emerson Lett. & Soc. Aims i. 58 Our overpraise and idealization of famous masters. |
▪ II. overpraise, v.
(ˌəʊvəˈpreɪz)
[over- 27.]
trans. To praise excessively; to praise more than one deserves.
| 1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls) V. 339 It may wel be þat Arthur is ofte overpreysed. 1635 A. Stafford Fem. Glory (1860) Ep. Ded. 60 As we cannot over-worship the True Deity, so wee cannot over-praise a true Piety. 1733 Pope Let. to Swift Wks. 1751 IX. 250, I like much better to be abused and half-starved, than to be so over-praised and over-fed. 1858 J. B. Norton Topics 116 The Company's petition..appears to me to have been singularly over-rated and over-praised. |
So ˈoverˈpraised ppl. a.; ˈoverˈpraising vbl. n.
| a 1225 Ancr. R. 86 He hit heueð to heie up mid ouer⁓preisunge & herunge. 1667 Milton P.L. ix. 615 Serpent, thy overpraising leaves in doubt The vertue of that Fruit, in thee first prov'd. 1826 Syd. Smith Wks. (1859) II. 106/2 A very great blot in our over-praised criminal code. 1863 J. C. Jeaffreson Sir Everard's Dau. 121 The rather mean and very much over-praised quality, called common-sense. |