overrate
verb
- rate higher than worth
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /ˌəʊvəˈɹeɪt/
noun
Etymology: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *úp Proto-Indo-European *-er Proto-Indo-European *upér Proto-Germanic *uber Old English ofer- Middle English over- English over- English rate English overrate From over- + rate.
- An excessive estimate or rate.
verb
Etymology: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *úp Proto-Indo-European *-er Proto-Indo-European *upér Proto-Germanic *uber Old English ofer- Middle English over- English over- English rate English overrate From over- + rate.
- To esteem too highly; to give greater praise than due.
- To overstate or overestimate in amount, extent, degree, etc.
“The vicissitudes of the weather may be responsible for more suffering among the lower animals than in the case of man, but we who live in England are perhaps inclined to overrate the amount of inconvenience occasioned to the world at large by this cause.”
“Vance and Martin note another problem with retrospective analysis of sexual patterns in a case in which a person has been diagnosed with AIDS or ARC. There may be a tendency for diagnosed people to overrate their sexual encounters in the belief that promiscuity is the cause of AIDS, thereby explaining or rationalizing their illness.”