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overcompensate
[ oh-ver-kom-puhn-seyt ]
verb (used with object)
- to compensate or reward excessively; overpay:
Some stockholders feel the executives are being overcompensated and that bonuses should be reduced.
verb (used without object)
- to exhibit psychological overcompensation; strive to overcome a sense of inferiority through overt, opposite behavior:
The aggressive patient may be overcompensating, and be a profoundly shy person beneath the façade.
overcompensate
/ ˌəʊvəˈkɒmpɛnˌseɪt /
verb
- to compensate (a person or thing) excessively
- intr psychol to engage in overcompensation
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Derived Forms
- ˌoverˈcompenˌsatory, adjective
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Word History and Origins
Origin of overcompensate1
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Example Sentences
When the spine isn’t properly aligned other parts of your body will overcompensate and raise fatigue and stress levels.
Now, Lange says, defenses may be overcompensating for that trend and sealing the 3-point line at the expense of their 2-point defense.
In the superhero realm, the trend has been to make villains into victims, whether it's Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker being bullied and ridiculed into pathology or “Wonder Woman 1984’s” Maxwell Lord violently overcompensating for the love he never had.
Swift’s previous albums, wrote Laura Snapes for the Guardian, had been exhausting, filled with “the sense that one of pop’s all-time greatest songwriters is overcompensating despite her clear talent.”
As the energy factory breaks down, the authors explain, the cell sometimes tries to overcompensate, like pushing a damaged nuclear facility.
Gladwell argues that they are successful because they had to overcompensate when they were young for their difficulty reading.
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