overstep
Americanverb (used with object)
verb
Etymology
Origin of overstep
before 1000; Middle English oversteppen, Old English ofersteppan. See over-, step
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.
But after decades of interacting with others, I trust my instincts not to overstep, to know when to stay in my own lane when the other lane doesn’t seem receptive.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 18, 2026
“Local law enforcement must not be complicit through silence or inaction when federal agents overstep legal and ethical boundaries,” Duarte said.
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 10, 2026
Known to occasionally overstep with her kids by offering hugs or driving a child who missed the bus home, Justine swears she knows as little about the disappearance as everyone else in town.
From Salon • Aug. 8, 2025
In the next over, Carse produced a beauty that clattered the off stump, only for a marginal overstep to be detected.
From BBC • Dec. 6, 2024
To do so would be to overstep the bounds, and to display a bourgeois lack of cool.
From "Cat's Eye" by Margaret Atwood
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.
