overpay, v.
(əʊvəˈpeɪ)
[over- 26.]
To pay too higly, pay more than is due.
1. trans. To pay or recompense (a person, a service, etc.) beyond what is due or deserved; to give, or be, a more than sufficient recompense for; fig. to do more than compensate; to make up for superabundantly. Also absol. or intr.
| 1601 Shakes. All's Well iii. vii. 16 Let me buy your friendly helpe thus farre, Which I will ouer-pay, and pay againe When I haue found it. 1611 ― Cymb. ii. iv. 10 Your very goodnesse, and your company, Ore-payes all I can do. 1702 Pepys Let. 3 Oct., I cannot but think myself already overpaid. 1709 Prior Henry & Emma 8 And with one Heav'nly Smile o'erpay his Pains. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. xv. III. 539 His services were overpaid with honours and riches. 1859 Tennyson Enid 1069 My lord, you overpay me fifty-fold. |
2. trans. To pay more than (an amount or price); to pay (money) in excess of what is due.
| 1664 Atkyns Orig. Printing 15 Sell the Impression for 1600l...which Impression alone over-payes them all the Moneys they are out of Purse. 1679–88 Secr. Serv. Money Chas. & Jas. (Camden) 130 To reimburse him so much money he hath overpaid for fee-farme rents. 1784 Cowper Task vi. 860 Thou hast made it thine by purchase,..And overpaid its value with thy blood. |
So ˈover-pay n.; over-ˈpayment.
| 1702 Pepys Corr. Diary, etc. 1879 VI. 249, 14 Nov...I beg their believing me most sensible of this their over-payment. a 1816 Bentham Offic. Apt. Maximized, Introd. View (1830) 21 Supposing, indeed, the over-pay derived from crime—obtained, for example, by false pretences. 1884 Weekly Notes 26 Apr. 105/2 Whether there had been an over⁓payment to the society by one of its members. |