overcharge
Americanverb (used with object)
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to charge (a purchaser) too high a price.
When the manager realized we'd been overcharged, she gave us a credit for the difference.
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to fill too full; overload.
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to exaggerate.
to overcharge the importance of ancestry.
verb (used without object)
noun
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a charge in excess of a stated or just price.
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an act of overcharging.
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an excessive load.
verb
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to charge too much
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(tr) to fill or load beyond capacity
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literary another word for exaggerate
noun
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an excessive price or charge
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an excessive load
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Conjugated Forms
Present
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has overchargedperfect 3rd person singular
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have overchargedperfect
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is overchargingprogressive 3rd person singular
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are overchargingprogressive
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have been overchargingperfect progressive
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am overchargingprogressive 1st person singular
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has been overchargingperfect progressive 3rd person singular
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overchargingparticiple
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overchargessingular 3rd person
Past
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had overchargedperfect
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had been overchargingperfect progressive
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overchargedparticiple
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were overchargingprogressive plural
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was overchargingprogressive singular
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overchargedsimple
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.
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
The HUD figure, which is based on Census data for typical apartment rents in an area, is used to ensure landlords cannot overcharge low-income residents with housing choice vouchers.
From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 23, 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
Whatever their other failings may be, binders are generally honest in such matters and are not likely to overcharge, especially on average work.
From Book Repair and Restoration by Buck, Mitchell
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
