overbill

verb

over·​bill ˌō-vər-ˈbil How to pronounce overbill (audio)
overbilled; overbilling

transitive + intransitive

: to submit a bill (see bill entry 4 sense 4a) of charges to someone for an amount in excess of what is due : to bill for an excessive amount
The contractor overbilled us for the work.
Thousands of customers were overbilled.
The government agency alleges he overbilled nearly $1 million in that five-year period …Pamela Fayerman
… fraud is uncommon—somewhere between 0.5 per cent and five per cent of doctors overbill intentionally …Pamela Fayerman

Examples of overbill in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web In 2014, Venice prosecutors revealed a scheme to overbill the government and bribe politicians to keep the project, and public money, flowing. Emma Bubola Laetitia Vancon, New York Times, 1 Apr. 2023 Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison's office has concluded that the state's utilities mismanaged natural gas procurement after a historic winter storm in the South, leading them to overbill their customers for $380 million in wholesale gas costs. Mike Hughlett, Star Tribune, 8 July 2021 In the past, the city would pay for only an hour a day of that service, in part because of concerns that some providers might use it to overbill the system. Brian M. Rosenthal, New York Times, 29 Dec. 2022 The contracts the testing companies signed allow the state health agency to perform follow-up audits to ensure the businesses didn’t overbill the state for testing or pocket any additional profits. Dave Altimari and Andrew Brown, Hartford Courant, 19 Oct. 2022 Congress has ordered several rounds of cuts and gave C.M.S. the power to make additional reductions if the plans continued to overbill. Margot Sanger-Katz, New York Times, 8 Oct. 2022

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'overbill.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

1969, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of overbill was in 1969

Dictionary Entries Near overbill

Cite this Entry

“Overbill.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/overbill. Accessed 29 Mar. 2024.

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