Verb

To surmount (a physical or abstract obstacle); to prevail over, to get the better of.

:to overcome enemies in battle

*Spenser

*:This wretched woman overcome / Of anguish, rather than of crime, hath been.

*1898 , , (Moonfleet), Ch.4:

*:By and by fumes of brandy began to fill the air, and climb to where I lay, overcoming the mouldy smell of decayed wood and the dampness of the green walls.

(obsolete) To win (a battle).

*:

*:Ther with all cam kyng Arthur but with a fewe peple and slewe on the lyfte hand and on the ryght hand that wel nyhe ther escaped no man / but alle were slayne to the nombre of xxx M / And whan the bataille was all ended the kynge kneled doune and thanked god mekely / and thenne he sente for the quene and soone she was come / and she maade grete Ioye of the ouercomynge of that bataille

To win or prevail in some sort of battle, contest, etc.

:

*

, chapter=2, title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=That the young Mr. Churchills liked—but they did not like him coming round of an evening and drinking weak whisky-and-water while he held forth on railway debentures and corporation loans. Mr. Barrett, however, by fawning and flattery, seemed to be able to make not only Mrs. Churchill but everyone else do what he desired. And if the arts of humbleness failed him, he overcame you by sheer impudence.}}

(usually in passive) To overwhelm with emotion.

:

To come or pass over; to spread over.

*Shakespeare

*:And overcome us like a summer's cloud.

To overflow; to surcharge.

:

Verb

To take control of; to seize by force or stratagem.

to capture an enemy, a vessel, or a criminal

* 2014 , Ian Black, " Courts kept busy as Jordan works to crush support for Isis", The Guardian , 27 November 2014:

Arrests and prosecutions intensified after Isis captured Mosul in June, but the groundwork had been laid by an earlier amendment to Jordan’s anti-terrorism law. It is estimated that 2,000 Jordanians have fought and 250 of them have died in Syria – making them the third largest Arab contingent in Isis after Saudi Arabians and Tunisians.

To store (as in sounds or image) for later revisitation.

She captured the sounds of a subway station on tape.

She captured the details of the fresco in a series of photographs.

To reproduce convincingly.

His film adaptation captured the spirit of the original work.

In her latest masterpiece, she captured the essence of Venice.

To remove or take control of an opponent’s piece in a game (e.g., chess, go, checkers).

My pawn was captured .

He captured his opponent’s queen on the 15th move.

* 1954 , Fred Reinfeld, How to Be a Winner at Chess , page 63, Hanover House (Garden City, NY)

How deeply ingrained capturing is in the mind of a chess master can be seen from this story.