overplay

From over- +‎ play.

• enPR: ō'vər-plā'

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪ

overplay (third-person singular simple present overplays, present participle overplaying, simple past and past participle overplayed)

1. (transitive, intransitive, acting) To overdo or overact one's effect or role.

   When Chris overacted his part again, the director warned that anyone overplaying would be barred from the next production.

   • 2024 March 21, Lucy Mangan, “3 Body Problem review – the creators of Game of Thrones have done it again”, in The Guardian‎^[1], →ISSN:

     Nevertheless, 3 Body Problem does well to pull us onward, as much through the relentless, but never overplayed, suffering and hardening of Ye Wenjie as she endures her effective imprisonment in the project grounds – and the stealing of her work by others – as by the present day mystery.

2. (transitive, music) To play (a song or record) too frequently, often to the point of causing weariness and annoyance.
   • 2008, Walter Douglas Crigler, iMusic/myMusic, page 75:

     A lot of times I don't want to overplay songs that I really like, because I know that then I'll get sick of them and I don't want to get sick of them.

3. (transitive, intransitive, figurative) To overestimate one's strength in a game or event, which ultimately may end in a defeat.

   Jack won the last match of blackjack; Theo overplayed.

   • 2024 July 20, Tabby Kinder, George Hammond, Hannah Murphy, Alex Rogers, “Has Silicon Valley gone Maga?”, in FT Weekend, Big Read, page 6:

     Some of San Francisco's life-long Democrats believe the trend is being overplayed, the work of a small number of influential figures with big megaphones.

4. (transitive, golf) To accidentally hit (one's golf ball) beyond "the green".

   The first few shots went wonderfully, but Robin overplayed the last and lost.

• overplay one's hand