overspend
Americanverb (used without object)
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overspends,
present (3rd person singular)
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overspent,
past participle, past
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overspending
present participle
verb (used with object)
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overspends,
present (3rd person singular)
-
overspent,
past participle, past
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overspending
present participle
verb
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to spend in excess of (one's desires or what one can afford or is allocated)
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(tr; usually passive) to wear out; exhaust
noun
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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overspendsimple
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overspendssimple
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have overspentperfect
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has overspentperfect
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am overspendingprogressive
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are overspendingprogressive
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is overspendingprogressive
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have been overspendingperfect progressive
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has been overspendingperfect progressive
Past
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overspentsimple
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had overspentperfect
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was overspendingprogressive
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were overspendingprogressive
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had been overspendingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of overspend
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:
General manager Pat Verbeek had no choice but to overspend on center Leo Carlsson, signing him to a five-year, $90-million contract after the Flyers offered Carlsson the same deal.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 27, 2026
That way, when you’re out with friends and tempted to overspend, you’re forced to do so with your debit card, which often forces you to think a little more consciously about the dollar amount.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026
Under PSR, deductions are now set based upon on the level of the overspend, locked to a grid.
From BBC ● Jun. 17, 2026
‘The last thing somebody in college or just starting out needs to be doing is to overspend chasing rewards.’
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 9, 2026
I am never called anything but Mollie, except when I overspend my allowance, and mother feels it her duty to scold me.
From The Fortunes of the Farrells by Mrs. George de Horne Vaizey
He adds that, unlike rivals, Apple doesn’t have a cloud business to sell excess compute if it overspends on AI data centers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 19, 2026
Carmy tends to brush off nearly all of her concepts, making Syd question whether she can find the culinary success that’s long eluded her at the side of a colleague who overspends and overreaches.
From Salon ● Jun. 26, 2025
On 29 July, the government’s own public finance watchdog - the Office for Budget Responsibility - wrote that it had not been made aware of the extent of overspends.
From BBC ● Sep. 3, 2024
It said this could “constitute one of the largest year-ahead overspends against... forecasts outside of the pandemic years”.
From BBC ● Jul. 29, 2024
If he overspends his money he is bankrupt, and the person who overspends his strength is for the time physically bankrupt.
From A Practical Physiology by Albert F. Blaisdell
Stocks sold off rapidly on worries that U.S. companies had overspent, but bounced back and continued climbing later in the year.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 2, 2026
Or they overspent on infrastructure they couldn’t operationalize and are now cutting to manage cash flow.
From MarketWatch ● Dec. 4, 2025
It is running a decade late and has overspent by billions of pounds.
From BBC ● Jun. 10, 2025
The industry hasn’t fully recovered from shutdowns because of the COVID-19 pandemic, labor strikes and a retrenchment by legacy entertainment companies, many of which overspent to build streaming services to compete with Netflix.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 4, 2025
His aunt said, “He has overspent his power,” but she had no art to help him.
From "A Wizard of Earthsea" by Ursula K. Le Guin
Related: ‘People in the U.S. need to wake up’: As a mortgage loan officer, I rejected wealthy couples due to overspending.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 6, 2026
Investor concerns about software-sector weakness and artificial-intelligence overspending are retreating, providing a boost to shares of Microsoft.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 1, 2026
Those concerns and worries about overspending initially sparked a selloff in Nvidia shares.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 27, 2026
Mark Chamberlin, the school’s controller between 2021 and 2023, said he was startled by how weak financial management was, with few internal controls, poor record-keeping and few consequences when overspending came to light.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 3, 2026
In 1997, an IMF mission to Gabon criticized the government for overspending on off-budget items, overborrowing from the central bank, and slipping on its schedule for privatization and administrative reform.
From The 2008 CIA World Factbook by United States. Central Intelligence Agency
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.
