overcompensate

[oh-ver-kom-puhn-seyt]

verb (used with object)

overcompensated, overcompensating 

1. to compensate or reward excessively; overpay.

   Some stockholders feel the executives are being overcompensated and that bonuses should be reduced.

verb (used without object)

overcompensated, overcompensating 

1. 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

1. to compensate (a person or thing) excessively

2. (intr) psychol to engage in overcompensation

Other Word Forms

• overcompensatory adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of overcompensate¹

1760–70; over- + compensate; as term in psychology, perhaps back formation from overcompensation

Example Sentences

There was the stomach virus at the start of the year, which caused him to lose 20 pounds and develop bad swing habits while overcompensating for a decline in physical strength.

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Rudy may have been the scene-stealer in the earliest seasons of the show, but Theo had the most heart, striving to live up to his parents’ high expectations while behaviorally overcompensating for his low grades.

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“And who, over the course of the script, is overcompensating with love. That was just so me for a really large chunk of my life, frankly.”

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The movie seems to recoil from its own hammering dramatics, with Bryce Dessner’s score toggling uneasily between jocular blues and dour, overcompensating strings.

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“You don’t think he’s overcompensating do you?” a former GOP member of Congress asked me.

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