Verb

(excell)

To surpass someone or something; to be better or do better than someone or something.

* '>citation

    La Rochefoucauld, the French philosopher, said: "If
you want enemies, excel' your friends; but if you want
friends, let your friends '''excel''' you."
    Why is that true? Because when our friends '''excel''' us,
that gives them a feeling of importance; but when we ' excel
them, that gives them a feeling of inferiority and arouses
envy and jealousy.

I excelled everyone else with my exam results.

To be much better than others.

* {{quote-news

, year=2011 , date=November 12 , author= , title=International friendly: England 1-0 Spain , work=BBC Sport citation , page= , passage=Lescott gave his finest England performance alongside his former Everton team-mate Phil Jagielka, who also excelled despite playing with a fractured toe, while Parker was given a deserved standing ovation when he was substituted late on.}}

* 1924 : ARISTOTLE. Metaphysics . Translated by W. D. Ross. Nashotah, Wisconsin, USA: The Classical Library, 2001. Available at: . Book 1, Part 2.

If, then, there is something in what the poets say, and jealousy is natural to the divine power, it would probably occur in this case above all, and all who excelled in this knowledge would be unfortunate.

(rare) To exceed, to go beyond

* 1674 , Paradise lost, , by Milton

She opened; but to shut / Excelled her power: the gates wide open stood

* XIX century , , by Emily Dickinson

I reason, we could die : / The best vitality / Cannot excel decay; / But what of that?

Verb

(overtopp)

To be higher than, to rise over the top of.

*1955 , William Golding, The Inheritors , Faber and Faber 2005, p. 79:

*:There was a single birch tree that overtopped the other trees on the island, and was now picked out against the moon-drenched sky.

*{{quote-journal, 2009, date=February 20, Robert F. Service, MATERIALS SCIENCE: Is Silicon's Reign Nearing Its End?, Science citation

, passage=