overcharge
Americanverb (used with object)
-
overcharges,
present (3rd person singular)
-
overcharged,
past participle, past
-
overcharging
present participle
-
to charge (a purchaser) too high a price.
When the manager realized we'd been overcharged, she gave us a credit for the difference.
-
to fill too full; overload.
-
to exaggerate.
to overcharge the importance of ancestry.
verb (used without object)
-
overcharges,
present (3rd person singular)
-
overcharged,
past participle, past
-
overcharging
present participle
noun
-
a charge in excess of a stated or just price.
-
an act of overcharging.
-
an excessive load.
verb
-
to charge too much
-
(tr) to fill or load beyond capacity
-
literary another word for exaggerate
noun
-
an excessive price or charge
-
an excessive load
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
overchargesimple
-
overchargessimple
-
have overchargedperfect
-
has overchargedperfect
-
am overchargingprogressive
-
are overchargingprogressive
-
is overchargingprogressive
-
have been overchargingperfect progressive
-
has been overchargingperfect progressive
Past
-
overchargedsimple
-
had overchargedperfect
-
was overchargingprogressive
-
were overchargingprogressive
-
had been overchargingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of overcharge
Middle English word dating back to 1275–1325; see origin at over-, charge
Explanation
If a shopkeeper overcharges you, they ask you to pay too much for something. To overcharge isn't very honest, but it's not usually illegal either. Sometimes it's obvious that someone is trying to overcharge you: if the taxi driver announces that you owe her a hundred dollars after driving a route that usually costs about twenty, you can call that a blatant overcharge. In other cases, you may not realize until much later. It's not uncommon for salespeople to overcharge tourists, for example, making them pay too much money because they don't know any better.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
“It is reprehensible to overcharge and take advantage of wildfire victims who were in desperate need of housing as they fled their homes from raging fires last year,” Los Angeles County Dist.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 13, 2026
C. Meat packers are using “their position as middlemen to overcharge grocery stores and, ultimately, families.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 11, 2025
In practice, many insurers overcharge the federal government hundreds of billions of dollars in inflated estimates, often by adding diagnosis codes that make individuals appear sicker on paper than they are in reality.
From Salon ● Sep. 3, 2024
Due to this capture, Google is able to overcharge text-ad clients and shroud its actual terms in secrecy in a way that it hasn’t with more visually oriented ads.
From Slate ● Aug. 6, 2024
He had been busy with a peevish customer who haggled about a twenty-five-cent overcharge.
From Atlantic Narratives Modern Short Stories by Elizabeth Ashe
And earlier this year, a jury found that Live Nation was an illegal monopoly, following years of criticism that the company stifles competition and overcharges fans, but analysts say a breakup is unlikely.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 2, 2026
“The companies pulled their punches, and one company was left being the sole bidder on the contract and that involved a lot of overcharges to the good people of Texas,” Slater said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 4, 2025
It seeks compensation for overcharges, plus fees and other damages, and a trial by jury.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 13, 2024
Bradshaw is suing Clark and more than a dozen other attorneys over their handling of a separate lawsuit stemming from DWP billing overcharges, alleging his due processes were violated.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 5, 2024
"Oh, pretty good," said the little woman, shrugging her shoulders, "though they do say she overcharges and underfeeds her lodgers."
From The Silent House by Fergus Hume
For some that's because they do not want their supplier to estimate their usage in case they are overcharged.
From BBC ● Sep. 28, 2026
Alasdair Ibbotson, a councillor for Penyffordd, first raised the concern that passengers were being overcharged by the system in July.
From BBC ● Sep. 18, 2026
“This agreement protects patients from unnecessary treatment or getting overcharged, ensures access to medical care and legal representation, and strengthens safety measures.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 18, 2026
If it did pay dividends on watered stock, the public assumed it was being overcharged.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 12, 2026
I never saw him tired, never really winded, never overcharged and never restless.
From "A Separate Peace" by John Knowles
"Half, 86, involved overcharging, and another 35 involved unlicensed operators, and there were probably more because often tourists don't complain," she said.
From Barron's ● Oct. 7, 2026
But universities got greedy and abused the system by overcharging the government for overhead.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 4, 2026
I believe this is a legitimate case of timeshare overcharging.
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 27, 2026
A spokesperson for the MLA said the number of complaints it had received about suspected overcharging had risen from 280 in 2023, to 350 in 2024 to 402 last year.
From BBC ● Jan. 29, 2026
The prosecutor is also free to file more charges against a defendant than can realistically be proven in court, so long as probable cause arguably exists—a practice known as overcharging.
From "The New Jim Crow" by Michelle Alexander
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