ˌover-ˈcompensate, v.
Also as one word.
[over- 24.]
trans. and intr. To compensate excessively for (something); spec. in Psychol., to exhibit over-compensation (see next). Hence ˌover-ˈcompensated ppl. a.; ˌover-compenˈsatory a.
| 1768–74 Tucker Lt. Nat. (1834) II. 678 A damage..which will be over-compensated by its produce to the party sustaining it. 1917 Psychol. Bull. XIV. 207 By psychological investigation and analysis, one may disclose the psychic phase of these compensatory and over-compensatory processes. 1934 H. C. Warren Dict. Psychol. 190/1 Overcompensate, to make more than the necessary amount of allowance or adjustment. 1937 ‘M. Innes’ Hamlet, Revenge! ii. viii. 194 One builds on the over-compensated Oedipus—Dad Advises Sonny-boy. 1947 Partisan Rev. XIV. 476 As a result he..over-compensates by consciously immersing himself in parochial attitudes shared by the folk. 1949 M. Mead Male & Female iv. 88 Their sons again grow up similarly focussed on women, similarly in need of over-compensatory ceremonial to rescue them. 1958 ‘E. Crispin’ Best SF Three 11 As to human intellect, science fiction has emphasised its inadequacy over and over again. The genre ‘overcompensates’, no doubt, in showing the man animal so often defeated, or all but defeated, by the Other Thing, and this over-compensation is the origin of the accusations of pessimism that are so often levelled against it. 1962 Simpson & Richards Physical Princ. Junction Transistors xii. 280 In case (b) (perfect compensation), the dashed curve coincides with the extrapolated linear sections of the transfer characteristics, and in the overcompensated case (c) it lies between the two linear sections. 1968 L. Durrell Tunc i. 17 We sparred gracefully in the fashion of well-educated Englishmen overcompensating. 1973 ‘D. Halliday’ Dolly & Starry Bird xviii. 277 Innes..will shortly give you a brandy because he is overcompensating. He thought you were guilty and is now ashamed. 1973 C. Mullard Black Brit. ii. iv. 44 In others [sc. classrooms] the teachers overcompensated and patronized their new pupils. |