as in exceeding
to be greater, better, or stronger than
a manager whose arrogance was overtopped only by his ineptitude
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Recent Examples of overtopping
The 75-year-old levee had multiple failures in recent days, from seepage and water overtopping it to a partial collapse at one home, county officials said.
—
Steven Rosenfeld, Mercury News, 6 Jan. 2026
The most common reason levees fail is overtopping, when water from a river, stream or lake behind the levee flows over the top.
—Farshid Vahedifard, The Conversation, 29 Dec. 2025
That fateful day, the dam collapsed, releasing a torrent of floodwater that swallowed thousands of homes in the area, ripping some off their foundations while leaving others severely damaged, and overtopping the Sanford Dam.
—Giulia Carbonaro, MSNBC Newsweek, 18 Aug. 2025
Steven Rosenfeld, Mercury News, 6 Jan. 2026
The most common reason levees fail is overtopping, when water from a river, stream or lake behind the levee flows over the top.
—Farshid Vahedifard, The Conversation, 29 Dec. 2025
That fateful day, the dam collapsed, releasing a torrent of floodwater that swallowed thousands of homes in the area, ripping some off their foundations while leaving others severely damaged, and overtopping the Sanford Dam.
—Giulia Carbonaro, MSNBC Newsweek, 18 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for overtopping
Verb
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Rather, anyone exceeding the gift-tax threshold in a single year must file the gift tax return form, and that excess amount counts against their lifetime exclusion amount.—
Christine Benz,
Los Angeles Times,
3 Feb. 2026
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He is now engaged in an ongoing insurrection by violating the Constitution, exceeding his lawful authorities, usurping Congress, and encouraging Republican states to manipulate voting districts and procedures.—
Washington Post,
Washington Post,
3 Feb. 2026
Verb
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The Spaniard also become the youngest man in the Open Era to seal seven grand slam titles, surpassing the record previously held by Bjorn Borg.—
Issy Ronald,
CNN Money,
1 Feb. 2026
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Djokovic surpassing Rosewall’s record would also highlight how the tennis world has been desensitized to his evergreen brilliance.—
Matthew Futterman,
New York Times,
31 Jan. 2026
Verb
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From the pudding to the fluffy meringue topping, this recipe is made totally from scratch.—
Josh Miller,
Southern Living,
1 Feb. 2026
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In addition to topping the Netflix charts, its soundtrack has spent several weeks in the top 10 of the Billboard 200 chart.—
Nicole Fell,
HollywoodReporter,
1 Feb. 2026
Verb
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Kepler alone identified around 3,000 eclipsing binaries, where the stars regularly pass in front of each other from our point of view.—
Rupendra Brahambhatt,
Interesting Engineering,
31 Jan. 2026
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But in many organizations, that lesson gets distorted, with speaking eclipsing the far more powerful discipline of listening.—
Cheryl Robinson,
Forbes.com,
26 Jan. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Overtopping.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/overtopping. Accessed 5 Feb. 2026.
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