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Outrun vs Overrun - What's the difference?

outrun | overrun |

As verbs the difference between outrun and overrun

is that outrun is to run faster than the others while overrun is to defeat an enemy and invade in great numbers, seizing his positions conclusively.

As nouns the difference between outrun and overrun

is that outrun is the sheepdog's initial run towards the sheep, done in a curving motion so as not to startle them while overrun is an instance of overrunning.

outrun

English

Verb

  • To run faster than the others.
  • To exceed or overextend.
  • * 1813 , Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice , Modern Library Edition (1995), page 164
  • They will take care not to outrun their income. They will never be distressed for money.
  • * 1851 ,
  • [...] as I levelled my glance towards the taffrail, foreboding shivers ran over me. Reality outran apprehension; Captain Ahab stood upon his quarter-deck.

    References

    * *

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (sheepdog trials) The sheepdog's initial run towards the sheep, done in a curving motion so as not to startle them.
  • overrun

    English

    Verb

    (transitive)
  • To defeat an enemy and invade in great numbers, seizing his positions conclusively.
  • To infest, swarm over, flow over.
  • The vine overran''' its trellis; the field is '''overrun with weeds.
  • * Spenser
  • those barbarous nations that overran the world
  • * {{quote-news, year=2012, date=November 7, author=Matt Bai, title=Winning a Second Term, Obama Will Confront Familiar Headwinds, work=New York Times citation
  • , passage=As President Obama turns his attention once again to filling out a cabinet and writing an Inaugural Address, this much is clear: he should not expect to bask in a surge of national unity, or to witness a crowd of millions overrun the Mall just to say they were there.}}
  • To run past; to run beyond.
  • The athlete overran the finish line and kept going.
    One line overruns another in length.
  • * Bible, 2. Sam. xviii. 23
  • Ahimaaz run by the way of the plain, and overran Cushi.
  • To continue for too long.
  • The performance overran by ten minutes, which caused some people to miss their bus home.
  • (printing) To carry (some type, a line or column, etc.) backward or forward into an adjacent line or page.
  • To go beyond; to extend in part beyond.
  • In machinery, a sliding piece is said to overrun its bearing when its forward end goes beyond it.
  • To abuse or oppress, as if by treading upon.
  • * Spenser
  • None of them the feeble overran .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An instance of overrunning
  • * 2013 June 18, , " Protests Widen as Brazilians Chide Leaders," New York Times (retrieved 21 June 2013):
  • Some of the stadiums being built for the World Cup soccer tournament, scheduled for next year, have also been criticized for delays and cost overruns , and have become subjects of derision as protesters question whether they will become white elephants.
  • The amount by which something overruns
  • ''At least this year's overrun isn't as unmanageable as last year!