Overtask
verb ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 To task too heavily; to give someone or something too many tasks; to overburden. transitive
"We were almost always under fire from the enemy; but with the utmost cheerfulness, and even, I may say, good-humour, the whole of the infantry did all in their power to lighten the work of the overtasked artillerymen: comrades we were, all striving for the accomplishment of one purpose--that of bringing swift and sure destruction on the rebels who had for so long a period successfully resisted our arms."
Example
More examples"We were almost always under fire from the enemy; but with the utmost cheerfulness, and even, I may say, good-humour, the whole of the infantry did all in their power to lighten the work of the overtasked artillerymen: comrades we were, all striving for the accomplishment of one purpose--that of bringing swift and sure destruction on the rebels who had for so long a period successfully resisted our arms."
Etymology
From over- + task.
More for "overtask"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.