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definitions

overstay

[oh-ver-stey]
verb (used with object)
  1. to stay beyond the time, limit, or duration of; outstay: to overstay one's welcome.
  2. Finance. to remain in (the market) beyond the point where a sale would have yielded the greatest profit.

Origin of overstay

First recorded in 1640–50; over- + stay1
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for overstay

Contemporary Examples of overstay

Historical Examples of overstay

  • If you overstay the limit and cannot return, you will be decontaminated just as we must be when we return to our own people.

    Shock Treatment

    Stanley Mullen

  • I married Rashborough because it was the best thing that offered, and I did not want to overstay my market.

  • You will wonder perhaps why I "overstay," since I frankly admit that I'm "fed up" with too much scenery and too much information.

    Set in Silver

    Charles Norris Williamson and Alice Muriel Williamson

  • Mr. Crisparkle sat with his watch in his hand for about the same period, lest he should overstay his time.

  • Mutual recriminations were absent, although they knew that it was a serious matter to overstay shore leave.

    A Lively Bit of the Front

    Percy F. Westerman

British Dictionary definitions for overstay

overstay

verb (tr)
  1. to stay beyond the time, limit, or duration of
  2. finance to delay a transaction in (a market) until after the point at which the maximum profit would have been made
  3. NZ to stay in New Zealand beyond (the period sanctioned by the immigration authorities or the period of a visitor's permit)
  4. overstay one's welcome or outstay one's welcome to stay (at a party, on a visit, etc), longer than pleases the host or hostess
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012