overrate

verb

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over·rate | \ ˈō-vər-ˌrāt

overrated; overrating; overrates

Definition of overrate

transitive verb

: to rate or value (someone or something) too highly By grossly overrating the danger from Communist agents inside the United States, the scaremongering of the House Un-American Activities Committee boosted the impression that Communist monsters in general were a mythical breed.— Norman Davies … they have an undersized shooting guard … who so vastly overrates his abilities that he declined management's five-year, $50 million extension offer.— Jack McCallum — see also overrated

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Examples of overrate in a Sentence

The coach tends to overrate the players on his own team. I think the critics seriously overrated that movie.

Recent Examples on the Web It’s an old-fashioned system and an obviously imperfect one, destined to overrate some songs and to underrate others. — Kelefa Sanneh, The New Yorker, 13 June 2022 Company founders in general drastically overrate their aspirational power. — Rob Walker, Fortune, 1 Nov. 2021 That’s oftentimes because drivers tend to overrate their own driving prowess. — Lance Eliot, Forbes, 13 Sep. 2021 And in the bonus rookie camp, Nahshon Wright gets another chance to prove that the Cowboys didn’t overrate him in the draft [26:55]. — Dallas News, 15 June 2021 No doubt Baker learned to navigate Washington as few did, but the view here is that the authors overrate the past. — John Tamny, Forbes, 27 May 2021 But the victory, like four of his others, came against a bad Bengals defense, and the Browns must be careful not to overrate it. — cleveland, 31 Oct. 2020 Length can be a tad overrated for interior defenders, but Lynch’s deficient length shows up on tape. — John Owning, Dallas News, 25 Apr. 2020 Scott: There is a fear of having my credibility shot by writing this, but Bull Durham has been vastly overrated. — Scott Venci, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 6 Apr. 2020 See More

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'overrate.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.