Overprosecute

verb

verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To prosecute (a crime or community) excessively. transitive

    "The emphasis on prosecution and conviction as metrics of success leads police and prosecutors to overarrest, overprosecute, and overpunish low-level drug and other crimes in many cases."

Example

More examples

"The emphasis on prosecution and conviction as metrics of success leads police and prosecutors to overarrest, overprosecute, and overpunish low-level drug and other crimes in many cases."

Etymology

From over- + prosecute.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.