Overstay

noun, verb

noun, verb ·3 syllables ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The act of staying too long.

    "For example, if USCIS approves a change of status or extension of stay for a nonimmigrant, the alien may be authorized to remain in the country beyond his or her original period of admission without qualifying as an overstay."

Verb
  1. 1
    To remain present after the agreed or appropriate departure time. intransitive
  2. 2
    stay too long wordnet
  3. 3
    To remain present beyond the limits of. transitive

    "He overstayed his welcome."

Synonyms

All synonyms
outstay

Example

More examples

"Be careful not to overstay your welcome."

Etymology

From over- + stay.

Related phrases

overstay one's welcome

More for "overstay"

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