The Collaborative International Dictionary
Overreach \O`ver*reach"\ ([=o]`v[~e]r*r[=e]ch"), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Overreached, ( Overraught, obs.); p. pr. & vb. n. Overreaching.]
To reach above or beyond in any direction.
To deceive, or get the better of, by artifice or cunning; to outwit; to cheat.
--Shak.To defeat one's own purpose by trying to do too much or by trying too hard or with excessive eagerness; -- used reflexively; as, the candidate overreached himself by trying to plant false rumors, which backfired/
Wiktionary
n. deception vb. (present participle of overreach English)
WordNet
adj. revealing excessive self-confidence; reaching for the heights; "vaulting ambition" [syn: vaulting]
Wikipedia
Overreaching is a concept in English land law and the Law of Property Act 1925. It refers to a situation where a person's equitable property right is dissolved, and detached from a piece of property, and reattached to money that is given by a third party for the property. This happens, according to City of London Building Society v Flegg in any case where property is bought or mortgaged in a contract with two or more title holders.
Overreaching can only exist where a trust is in existence and a property is sold. It occurs when the purchaser paid to at least two trustees in monies. The occupiers of a property in such a situation cannot then claim that their occupation of the property is an overriding interest, as the joint trustees have brought that occupation to a close through the sale of the property.
By purchasing the property from trustees, under Section 2 of the Law of Property Act 1925, the occupation rights of any other party are automatically extinguished. If such a party claims an overriding interest in the land, that interest is converted by attaching a monetary interest to the land, such as a purchase price, and the interest claimed by the party is 'overreached'; this conversion is often referred to as the doctrine of equitable conversion.
If only one owner exists, there is a risk that a third party could claim occupation and overreaching cannot apply.
The issues of overreaching and overriding interests are often closely linked, and the case of Birmingham Midshires v Sabherwal examined both issues.
Overreaching is a process whereby certain equitable rights in land which might otherwise have enjoyed protection in the system of registration on the occasion of a sale of that land to a purchaser for value are "swept off" the land and transferred to the purchase money that has just been paid.
Usage examples of "overreaching".
It seemed reasonable to them that men lived together solely for the purpose of overreaching and oppressing one another, and of being overreached and oppressed, and that while a society that gave full scope to these propensities could stand, there would be little chance for one based on the idea of cooperation for the benefit of all.
Had our forefathers conceived a state of society in which men should live together like brethren dwelling in unity, without strifes or envying, violence or overreaching, and where, at the price of a degree of labor not greater than health demands, in their chosen occupations, they should be wholly freed from care for the morrow and left with no more concern for their livelihood than trees which are watered by unfailing streams,--had they conceived such a condition, I say, it would have seemed to them nothing less than paradise.