different between beguile vs overreach

English

Alternative forms

• begyle [from the Middle English period through the 16th century]

Etymology

From Middle English begilen, begylen; equivalent to be- +? guile. Compare Middle Dutch begilen (“to beguile”). Doublet of bewile.

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -a?l
• IPA^(key): /b???a?l/

Verb

beguile (third-person singular simple present beguiles, present participle beguiling, simple past and past participle beguiled)

1. (transitive) To deceive or delude (using guile).
   • a. 1608, William Shakespeare, King Lear, II, II, 102.

     I know, sir, I am no flatterer: he that beguiled you, in a plain accent, was a plain knave.

2. (transitive) To charm, delight or captivate.
   • 1864 November 21, Abraham Lincoln (signed) or John Hay, letter to Mrs. Bixby in Boston

     I feel how weak and fruitless must be any words of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming.

   I will never touch The Orb, even though its mysterious glow seduces and beguiles.

3. (transitive) To cause (time) to seem to pass quickly, by way of pleasant diversion.

   We beguiled the hours away

Related terms

• wile

Translations

References

• beguile in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• beguile in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

English

Etymology

The verb is from Middle English overrechen (“to rise above; to extend beyond or over; to encroach; to catch, overtake; to reach; to obtain wrongfully (?); to take up (a book) to revise it”) [and other forms], equivalent to over- +? reach; the noun is derived from the verb or from the phrase to reach over.

Pronunciation

• Verb:
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /???v???i?t??/
  • (General American) IPA^(key): /?o?v?(?)??it??/
  • Rhymes: -i?t?
• Noun:
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /???v?(?)?i?t??/
  • (General American) IPA^(key): /?o?v?(?)??it??/
• Hyphenation: over?reach

Verb

overreach (third-person singular simple present overreaches, present participle overreaching, simple past and past participle overreached)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To reach above or beyond, especially to an excessive degree. [from 14th c.]

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:transcend

   1. (transitive, property law) To defeat or override a person's interest in property; (Britain, specifically) of a holder of the legal title of real property: by mortgaging or selling the legal title to a third party, to cause another person's equitable right in the property to be dissolved and to be replaced by an equitable right in the money received from the third party.
2. (transitive, intransitive, figuratively) To do something beyond an appropriate limit, or beyond one's ability.
3. (transitive, intransitive, reflexive, equestrianism) Of a horse: to strike the heel of a forefoot with the toe of a hindfoot. [from 16th c.]
4. (transitive, intransitive, now rare) To deceive, to swindle.

   Synonyms: cheat, defraud; see also Thesaurus:deceive

   • 1775, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, The Duenna, II.4:

     Don't you see that, by this step, I overreach him? I shall be entitled to the girl's fortune without settling a ducat on her!
5. (intransitive, nautical) To sail on one tack farther than is necessary.
6. (transitive, archaic) To get the better of, especially by artifice or cunning; to outwit. [from 16th c.]

Conjugation

Derived terms

• overreacher
• overreaching (noun)
• overreachingly

Translations

Noun

overreach (countable and uncountable, plural overreaches)

1. (also figuratively) An act of extending or reaching over, especially if too far or much; overextension.
2. (equestrianism) Of a horse: an act of striking the heel of a forefoot with the toe of a hindfoot; an injury caused by this action.

Derived terms

• overreach boot

Translations

References

Further reading

• overreaching (law) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia