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
The lack of transparency enables PBMs to overcharge patients and health plans.
From Salon ● May 31, 2025
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
Suddenly the cry of the whip-Will's-widow filled the grove—"whip-Will's-widow! whip-Will's-widow! whip-Will's-widow!"—in headlong importunity until the whole air sobbed and quivered with the overcharge of its melancholy passion.
From John March, Southerner by George W. Cable
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
Tap again when leaving a station to avoid overcharges.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 26, 2024
As for those refunds, Californians are still waiting for about $3.5 billion of the $5.5 billion that Consumer Watchdog estimates policyholders are owed for pandemic-era overcharges.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 21, 2023
Napoleon examined his domestic bills himself, detected overcharges and errors.
From How to Succeed or, Stepping-Stones to Fame and Fortune by Orison Swett Marden
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
Devices are at most risk when they are overcharged, malfunctioning or damaged, which can cause components to break down and release excess heat.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 18, 2026
Diamond Ward, his public defender in the state case, said prosecutors overcharged Moreno-Gama, calling the incident a “property crime, at best.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 16, 2026
The jury also found that Live Nation overcharged fans by $1.72 per concert ticket.
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 16, 2026
At the restaurant she insisted that the waitress had overcharged her for her milk shake, even though the price was right there on the menu.
From "Me Talk Pretty One Day" by David Sedaris
"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
It says that computer glitches are suspected to be behind more than 24,000 cases of child support overcharging, resulting in £4.3m in inflated charges.
From BBC ● Jul. 25, 2026
I believe this is a legitimate case of timeshare overcharging.
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 27, 2026
“You had a lot of dealerships in the Covid era that were overcharging, to say the least,” said Eric Frehsée, president of the Tamaroff Group in the Detroit area.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 26, 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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