overpromise

verb

over·​prom·​ise ˌō-vər-ˈprä-məs 

overpromised; overpromising

transitive + intransitive

: to promise more than is possible or realistic

Political candidates always overpromise or else the electorate won't bother to show up at their rallies.

—Michael Gomez

… received sharp criticism for overpromising and underperforming.

—Industry Week

Then a change in the Facebook algorithm punished click bait, which can tend to overpromise on what it links to. Steep traffic drops followed.

—Jim Rutenberg

To close a deal, bad vendors tend to overpromise features that they claim will be added down the line but never materialize.

—Michael Kan

Examples of overpromise in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The tech industry so far has a history of overpromising AI capabilities, and linear progression models like OpenAI's potentially risk fueling unrealistic expectations. —Benj Edwards, Ars Technica, 12 July 2024

By overpromising and underdelivering, the climatological community has done more reputational damage to itself than its critics ever could. —Noah Rothman, National Review, 27 June 2024

Starting a clean energy trade war, which would likely provoke China into taking retaliatory action, or overpromising on industrial policies is not the solution. —Henry Sanderson, Foreign Affairs, 2 Jan. 2024

After all, it’s been more than a decade since former Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos famously overpromised and under-delivered a flock of high-speed delivery drones jetting out all your Prime purchases in a Jetson-like whir of efficiency. —Jennifer Jolly, USA TODAY, 4 Apr. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1677, in the meaning defined above