overcompensation
Americannoun
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a pronounced striving to neutralize and conceal a strong but unacceptable character trait by substituting for it an opposite trait.
-
compensation to an unnecessary or unreasonable degree.
The pay was overcompensation for the work done.
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of overcompensation
1915–20; over- + compensation; as psychoanalytic term, translation of Überkompensation, coined by Alfred Adler
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.
The overcompensation led to a grand finale featuring both pro wrestler Hulk Hogan and Ultimate Fighting Championship president Dana White, rather than the traditional activists and politicians one hears at a convention.
From Salon • Jul. 20, 2024
He wore Kendall’s clothes and practiced self-doubt and the art of overcompensation.
From New York Times • May 31, 2023
If that is buried deep in the self-conscious — whether it is real or imagined — that someone wants to erase your existence, they respond with overcompensation: I am here, I exist.
From Salon • Jan. 25, 2023
For all its supercool posturing, casual cruelty and lurid overcompensation, “Bullet Train” was a cozy all along.
From Washington Post • Aug. 2, 2022
After what I’ve been through, some overcompensation is to be expected.
From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides
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.
