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Overtake   /ˈoʊvərtˌeɪk/   Listen
Overtake

verb
(past overtook; past part. overtaken; pres. part. overtaking)
1.
Catch up with and possibly overtake.  Synonyms: catch, catch up with.
2.
Travel past.  Synonyms: overhaul, pass.
3.
Overcome, as with emotions or perceptual stimuli.  Synonyms: overcome, overpower, overwhelm, sweep over, whelm.






WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University








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"Overtake" Quotes from Famous Books



... peculiarity of gait which is at once recognisable. It is told of the son of a famous man, who shared with his father the distinctive family gait, that when a boy his ears were once boxed by an old gentleman who chanced to observe him hurrying to overtake his parent, and who resented what he took to be an act of impertinent caricature. In the reproduction by the child of the habitual actions of his parents, heredity is largely concerned, but imitation too plays its part. In habit spasm the force of imitation ...
— The Nervous Child • Hector Charles Cameron

... Revolution to develop public control of all natural resources! Already the State lands are parcelled out amongst the wealthy peasants, who as a result of this robbery will establish a great landed aristocracy, and, if I do not misread the signs, a similar fate is about to overtake the great State industries with the creation of ...
— With the "Die-Hards" in Siberia • John Ward

... miles along the foot of the Himalayas, that harbours in its dim recesses the monsters of the animal kingdom, quaint survivals of a vanished race—the rhinoceros, the elephant, the bison, and the hamadryad, that great and terrible snake which can, and does, pursue and overtake a mounted man, and which with a touch of its poisoned fang can slay the most powerful brute. The huge Himalayan bear roams under the giant trees, feeding on fruit and honey, yet ready to shatter unprovoked the skull of a poor woodcutter. Those savage striped ...
— The Elephant God • Gordon Casserly

... get away from here as quickly as we can. If we hold a course a little south of west we ought to be able to follow the general line of the railroad and be able to overtake or meet Jimmie and Dave before they reach Verdun and ...
— Boy Scouts Mysterious Signal - or Perils of the Black Bear Patrol • G. Harvey Ralphson

... gravel. It was only four or five feet across, and I could easily have leaped it had I not been so tired. But a rock the size of my head projected from the slippery stream of gravel. In my haste to overtake Muir I did not stop to make sure this stone was part of the cliff, but stepped with springing force upon it to cross the fissure. Instantly the stone melted away beneath my feet, and I shot with it down towards the precipice. With my peril sharp upon me I cried ...
— Alaska Days with John Muir • Samual Hall Young

... garrison had now reached its acme of horror. The shrieks of women and the shrill cries of children, as they severally and fruitlessly fled from the death certain to overtake them in the end,—the cursings of the soldiers, the yellings of the Indians, the reports of rifles, and the crashings of tomahawks;—these, with the stamping of human feet in the death struggle maintained in the council-room below between the chiefs ...
— Wacousta: A Tale of the Pontiac Conspiracy (Complete) • John Richardson

... my veil and a box of bait and two handkerchiefs and a piece of soap," the girl complained, reaching down for the bottle, nevertheless. "But I can carry it in my hand till I overtake somebody to ...
— Good Indian • B. M. Bower

... battle made a change of generals without disaster. That is surely highly to the credit of General Meade. Lee's objective point was not known. He might capture Harrisburg or Philadelphia, or both. He would probably desire to cut off all communication with Washington. The only thing to do was to overtake him and force a battle. He himself realized this and was fully decided not to give battle but fight only on the defensive. Curiously enough, Meade also decided not to attack, but to fight on the defensive. Nevertheless, "the best ...
— The Life of Abraham Lincoln • Henry Ketcham

... Bragg's military secretary, told me to-day that the general would probably return from Wilmington soon. His plan for filling the ranks by renovating the whole conscription system, will, he fears, slumber until it is too late, when ruin will overtake us! If the President would only put Bragg at the head of the conscription business—and ...
— A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital • John Beauchamp Jones

... brave; it made Claude a coward. And third, there was that helpless terror of society in general, of which we have heard his friend talk. I have seen a strong horse sink trembling to the earth at the beating of an empty drum. Claude looked with amazed despair at a man's ability to overtake a pretty girl acquaintance in Canal Street, and walk and talk with her. He often asked himself how he had ever been a moment at his ease those November evenings in the tavern's back-parlor at Vermilionville. It was because he had a task ...
— Bonaventure - A Prose Pastoral of Acadian Louisiana • George Washington Cable

... dying was approaching rapidly, being asked by Criton how he would be buried, "I have taken a great deal of pains," saith he, "my friends, to no purpose, for I have not convinced our Criton that I shall fly from hence, and leave no part of me behind. Notwithstanding, Criton, if you can overtake me, wheresoever you get hold of me, bury me as you please: but believe me, none of you will be able to catch me when I have flown away from hence." That was excellently said, inasmuch as he allows his friend to do as he pleased, and yet shows his indifference about anything of this kind. Diogenes ...
— Cicero's Tusculan Disputations - Also, Treatises On The Nature Of The Gods, And On The Commonwealth • Marcus Tullius Cicero

... along the mid belt of the sphere, she makes the complete circuit in twenty-seven days, returning to the same point among the stars, or, if it should so happen, to the same star, within that time. Because the earth has meanwhile moved forward, the moon needs three days more to overtake it and gain the same relative position towards earth and sun, thus growing full again, not after twenty-seven, but after thirty days. Circles of twenty-seven and thirty days would stand for these lunar ...
— Ireland, Historic and Picturesque • Charles Johnston

... ruin. We have forced him from secret plots into open rebellion. The bad citizen is now the avowed traitor. His flight is the confession of his treason! Would that his attendants had not been so few! Be speedy, ye companions of his dissolute pleasures; be speedy, and you may overtake him before night, on the Aurelian road. Let him not languish, deprived of your society. Haste to join the congenial crew that compose his army; his army, I say—for who doubts that the army under Manlius ...
— Museum of Antiquity - A Description of Ancient Life • L. W. Yaggy

... her seat when she had seen that Lord Redin did not hear her voice, calling to him. Then she realized that she could not overtake him without running, since he had got so far, and she kept her place, leaning back once more, and trying to collect her thoughts before going home. The music was still going on in the Chapel of the Choir, and though it was dusk in the vast church, it would not be dark for some time. The vergers ...
— Casa Braccio, Volumes 1 and 2 (of 2) • F. Marion Crawford

... for an hour, walking up and down, up and down the long road under the trees. She reappeared as he was turning at the far end of it. He had to run to overtake her. ...
— The Creators - A Comedy • May Sinclair

... for the day, it depended entirely on Keith if they were to have company home. Murray never waited. If Keith was not in sight when he reached the street, he went right on. Several times Keith had to run several blocks to overtake his friend. ...
— The Soul of a Child • Edwin Bjorkman

... Judge released his assistant, two hours after the riding party had left. As he opened the front door and ran to his waiting car, Richard was wondering how many miles away they were and in what direction they had gone. He wanted nothing so much as to meet them somewhere on the road—better yet, to overtake ...
— The Twenty-Fourth of June • Grace S. Richmond

... luggage, Mr. Bullen," added Donald, indicating the tub with a gesture, "I'm afraid it must be left behind, or we shall never overtake Cuyler." ...
— At War with Pontiac - The Totem of the Bear • Kirk Munroe and J. Finnemore

... he can work more mischief," said a voice. But the captain cried out, "Nay, nay, he is sacred; the fire from Heaven has fallen on his brain, and we may not harm him, else evil would overtake us all. Bind him hand and foot, and bear him tenderly to where he can be cared for. Surely I thought that these evil-doers were giving us too little trouble, and ...
— Black Heart and White Heart • H. Rider Haggard

... said Girty. "There's no hurry. We can overtake Timmendiquas in a day, and we are quite sure that there are no Kentuckians in the woods. Besides, it will take Clark a considerable time to assemble a large force at the Falls, and weeks more to march through the forest. You will have a good ...
— The Border Watch - A Story of the Great Chief's Last Stand • Joseph A. Altsheler

... fleet at Guantanamo, Cuba, from where he figured on getting an answer in three weeks at least. But before the mail reached Guantanamo, the Texarkhoma had been detached by cable and ordered to the West Coast by way of South-American ports. The commandant at Guantanamo thought he might overtake the Texarkhoma at Rio Janeiro, and forwarded the packet to the American minister there. But having meantime got another cable from the department to hurry and make a steaming test of the cruise, the Texarkhoma ...
— Wide Courses • James Brendan Connolly

... mustering in long files to salute the Prime Minister. Just then the master of the house came running breathless from within. He had not seen that Cardinal Antonelli was taking his leave, and hastened to overtake him, lest any breach of etiquette on his part should attract the displeasure ...
— Saracinesca • F. Marion Crawford

... the street just now. You may suppose I am not able to walk as fast as you, with my short legs and short breath, and I couldn't overtake you; but I guessed where you came, and came after you. I have been here before, today, but the ...
— David Copperfield • Charles Dickens

... as fast as I could, but timor addidit alas (fear gave him wings), and made him swiftly fly; so that, although I was accounted very nimble, yet the farther we ran the more ground he gained on me; so that I could not overtake him, which made me think he took shelter under some bush, which he knew where to find, though I did not. Meanwhile, the coachman, who had sufficiently the outside of a man, excused himself from intermeddling under pretence ...
— The History of Thomas Ellwood Written by Himself • Thomas Ellwood

... as to the feasibility of their being able to overtake Brahe, and they all agreed that in their tired and enfeebled condition it was hopeless to attempt it; then, according to King's narrative, Burke said that instead of returning up the creek, their ...
— The History of Australian Exploration from 1788 to 1888 • Ernest Favenc

... things and ways in this miniature of a planet- -I feel it is just within the bounds of possibility that the wheels of your life don't travel so quickly round as those of the humble writer of these lines. The dandy horse of past days has been known to overtake the SLOW COACH. ...
— The Diary of a Nobody • George Grossmith and Weedon Grossmith

... to amuse me in a childish sickness, how the door opened, and how access was had to the chamber. I knew that the country round would be hunted for days, and that I could never escape the malice of the Lord of Mortimer if I pursued my way to the sea. He would overtake and kill me before I could make shift to gain that place of refuge. But I bethought me of the secret chamber and its story, and methought I might slip in unseen did I but watch my opportunity, find my way up the winding stair to this room, ...
— The Secret Chamber at Chad • Evelyn Everett-Green

... the gate. Thee can easily overtake her. I'm coming, Moses!"—and he hurried away to his son's ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 10, No. 57, July, 1862 - A Magazine Of Literature, Art, And Politics • Various

... thought it only right to release Moreno from the duress in which Sergeant Feeny had placed him. When so old an inhabitant of Arizona as Mr. Harvey gave entire credence to the report; recognized the note as really his son's handiwork and hastened at all speed to overtake the pursuers, what room for doubt could be left in the mind of a new-comer to the soil? It was time, thought Plummer, to form an alliance, offensive and defensive, with the Mexican denizens of the ranch against the enemy common to both. ...
— Foes in Ambush • Charles King

... sent over to England in spirits, has been put into attitude, and is now the property of Sir Joseph Banks, to whom it was presented by Lord Sydney. Although this bird cannot fly, it runs so swiftly, that a greyhound can scarcely overtake it. The flesh is said to be ...
— The Voyage Of Governor Phillip To Botany Bay • Arthur Phillip

... take him Watch, lay hold of him! Down with him!" At the same time pointing in the direction of the fleeing elder. Just as the fierce animal was about to overtake him, Elder Pratt began clapping his hands and shouting like the officer, pointing into the woods just ahead. The dog bounded past him and was soon lost to sight in the forest, while the missionary ...
— A Young Folks' History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints • Nephi Anderson

... with a stroke from heaven, such as men who are fat and heavy sometimes die of; or he has been bewitched by a wicked wizard. Yonder stands one," and he pointed to Owen, "who not an hour ago prophesied that before the sun was down great evil should overtake the king. The sun is not yet down, and great evil has overtaken him. Perchance, Princes and Councillors, this white prophet can tell us of ...
— The Wizard • H. Rider Haggard

... took the treasures, and hid the best part thereof for himself, for none knew what it was; and the rest he sent by his messengers, Abenalfarax the Guazil of the Cid being one; and they took their departure from Valencia with great secresy, least the Cid should know it and overtake them upon the road. But Abenalfarax devised means to let the Cid know, and sent him a messenger. And the Cid sent horsemen to follow their track, who caught them, and took the treasure, and brought it to the Cid. Greatly did he thank Abenalfarax for having ...
— Chronicle Of The Cid • Various

... the street I became aware of a footstep following hurriedly, as if to overtake me. Could it be Jack? Was there yet a chance? No, ...
— My Friend Smith - A Story of School and City Life • Talbot Baines Reed

... compass as I have wandered, I do now gladly overtake and close in with my subject, and shall henceforth hold on with it an even pace to the end of my journey, except some beautiful prospect appears within sight of my way, whereof, though at present I have neither warning nor expectation, ...
— A Tale of a Tub • Jonathan Swift

... that when the morning came on which we had arranged to depart, I had still some work by me which I had not finished, and I agreed therefore with Soobulda and Esuree, that they should start first and proceed leisurely, and that I would hasten after them and overtake ...
— Tales of the Caliph • H. N. Crellin

... belonging to the garrison. Spotted Tail asked permission of the commanding officer to accompany the pursuers. That officer, trusting in the honor of a Sioux brave, gave him a fast horse and a good carbine, and said to him: "I depend upon you to guide my soldiers so that they may overtake the ...
— Indian Heroes and Great Chieftains • [AKA Ohiyesa], Charles A. Eastman

... unfortunate traveler, of the name of Smith, who had fallen into their hands, and whom the women had begged might not be dispatched before their eyes. It was this halt that enabled the pursuers to overtake them. The women immediately gave the alarm, and the miscreants mounting their horses, which were large, fleet and powerful, fled in separate directions. Leeper singled out the 'Big Harpe,' and being better mounted than his companions, soon left them far behind. 'Little ...
— The Story of the Outlaw - A Study of the Western Desperado • Emerson Hough

... says: "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt[11];" that is, with God's marvellous grace, whereby He gives ...
— Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. VII (of 8) • John Henry Newman

... they had arisen. It is a deeply interesting study to investigate all the evils that were the result. Nations, like individuals, cannot become desperate gamblers with impunity. Punishment is sure to overtake them sooner or later. A celebrated writer[21] is quite wrong when he says, "that such an era as this is the most unfavourable for a historian; that no reader of sentiment and imagination can be entertained or interested by a detail of transactions such as these, which admit of no warmth, ...
— Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds • Charles Mackay

... the American; "and if your cook has ventured alone into the forest, he runs a great risk of going astray. Perhaps we shall overtake him on the way." ...
— Dick Sand - A Captain at Fifteen • Jules Verne

... began again to drum and beat with her feet as before. But not to dwell on small particularities, let it suffice to say, that she sent her coachman on one of her coach horses, which, being old and stiff, did not overtake the fugitives till they were in their bed at Kilmarnock, where they stopped that night; but when they came back to the lady's in the morning, she was as cagey and meikle taken up with them, as if they had gotten her full consent and privilege to marry from the first. Thus was the first of Mrs ...
— The Annals of the Parish • John Galt

... are not altogether in the dark concerning these facts: Luke 21:29-33—"So likewise ye, when ye see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand" (v. 36). Also 1 Thess. 5:1-8—"But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as ...
— The Great Doctrines of the Bible • Rev. William Evans

... Indians. But I will begin at the beginning. When I crossed the river and reached your hut, (which is indeed impregnable,) I was astonished to find you had gone forth to hunt without a guide; and not so much fearing you would be lost, should night overtake you, as apprehending serious danger from the fire, the approach of which I anticipated long before night, from the peculiar complexion of the atmosphere, I set out on your trail, in hopes of overtaking ...
— Wild Western Scenes • John Beauchamp Jones

... to me for the time being, but in a few weeks came again with pleadings made eloquent by suffering. As they had felt the vice-like grip of the peculiar system on their own hearts and lives, they realized too keenly the fate that might any time overtake their daughters. But I still resisted all their entreaties, and in a few days after they applied to J. F. Dolbeare, one of the trustees of Raisin Institute, who, thinking there was no danger, wrote all they desired, telling the supposed Deacon Bayliss all their past life in the free States ...
— A Woman's Life-Work - Labors and Experiences • Laura S. Haviland

... fate of St. Stephen might overtake me; but does the man deserve the name of a follower of Christ who would shrink from danger of any kind in the cause of Him whom he calls his Master? 'He who loses his life for my sake shall find it,' are words ...
— George Borrow and His Circle - Wherein May Be Found Many Hitherto Unpublished Letters Of - Borrow And His Friends • Clement King Shorter

... for many domestic virtues that would suffer greatly in the other state. Yet this is but a faint image of the total independency. Oaths were sacred only through the temporal judgments supposed to overtake those who insulted the Gods by summoning them to witness a false contract. But this would have been only part of the evil. So long as men acknowledged higher natures, they were doubtful about futurity. This doubt had little strength on the side of hope, but much on the side of fear. ...
— The Posthumous Works of Thomas De Quincey, Vol. 1 (2 vols) • Thomas De Quincey

... grannie can't sit in the back-seat—neither could I—and look like a tame cockatoo while you sat in front. You ask Harry to let you drive him. I bet he'll consent; he's sure to be in a sulky with a spare scat on spec. We're sure to overtake him in a ...
— My Brilliant Career • Miles Franklin

... yards when two people overtake them—a man and a woman. The man stops to speak: the woman marches on with her arms folded and her head in the air, as if they ...
— Our Little Lady - Six Hundred Years Ago • Emily Sarah Holt

... feet. Some think the American black a better tree for grafting stock that the California black. One of the noblest and grandest trees in any American forest is the American black walnut, and while a little slow at the beginning of its career it is only a question of time when it will overtake all others. It knows no disease or pests, and he who plants it lays a foundation for 20 to 50 generations to come as well as for himself and ...
— Walnut Growing in Oregon • Various

... my fair friend, still shall I find you thus? Still shall these sighs heave after one another, These trickling drops chase one another still, As if the posting messengers of grief Could overtake the hours fled far away, And ...
— Jane Shore - A Tragedy • Nicholas Rowe

... 'cannot.' His power is limited by His own solemn purpose to save His faltering servant. The latter had feared that, before he could reach the mountain, 'the evil' would overtake him. God shows him that his safety was a condition precedent to its outburst. Lot barred the way. God could not 'let slip the dogs of' judgment, but held them in the leash until Lot was in Zoar. Very awful is the command to make haste, ...
— Expositions of Holy Scripture - Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers • Alexander Maclaren

... his hardest to overtake his cousins before they reached the pond, and was soon skimming about ...
— The Night Before Christmas and Other Popular Stories For Children • Various

... duty that he could not avoid it, disagreeable as it was to give testimony against his shipmates. It seemed to him that the ship could not float much longer if such iniquity were carried on within her walls of wood; she must be purged of such enormities, or some fearful retribution would overtake her. There was no malice or revenge in the bosom of the second lieutenant; he was acting solely and unselfishly for the good of ...
— Outward Bound - Or, Young America Afloat • Oliver Optic

... of us now," said one, "and we shall never overtake him. We had the game in our hands, and have simply thrown ...
— At the Point of the Sword • Herbert Hayens

... Hill, two pieces pushed over the mountains and pressed their rear guard with great energy for two days, during nearly the whole time in a drenching rain, deep mud, and through fords, the men all anxiety to overtake the fleeing foes. The rebels had felled trees to obstruct the road. Some chopped the trees asunder, some helped the guns through the mud, and all worked like desperate men. Finally the transportation of the rebels stuck fast in quicksand ...
— Cleveland Past and Present - Its Representative Men, etc. • Maurice Joblin

... in the next 2000 years, half of that in the next 2000 and so on. The reader can figure out for himself when it will all be gone. He will then have the answer to the old Eleatic conundrum of when Achilles will overtake the tortoise. But we may say that after 100,000 years there would not be left any radium worth mentioning, or in other words practically all the radium now in existence is younger than the human race. The lead that is found in uranium and has presumably descended from uranium, ...
— Creative Chemistry - Descriptive of Recent Achievements in the Chemical Industries • Edwin E. Slosson

... capacity, and destitute of that admirable force of genius which Nature bestows upon her favourites, or has been denied the advantages of a liberal education, let him make the progress he is able. For while we are driving to overtake the foremost, it is no disgrace to be found among the second class, or even the third. Thus, for instance, among the poets, we respect the merit not only of a Homer (that I may confine myself to the Greeks) or of Archilochus, Sophocles, ...
— Cicero's Brutus or History of Famous Orators; also His Orator, or Accomplished Speaker. • Marcus Tullius Cicero

... read out this missive. "'Failing to find you in Bruton Street, start in pursuit and hope to overtake you about four.'" It did involve an ambiguity. "Why, he has been engaged these three days to coincide with myself, and not to fail of him has been ...
— The Outcry • Henry James

... the ring of her skates within a very few moments; he threw a glance over his shoulder, saw her, and then began to run. It was a feeble attempt to escape, for unless some accident happened to Ruth, she could easily overtake him. ...
— Ruth Fielding at Snow Camp • Alice Emerson

... brethren, are not in darkness, that the day should overtake you as a thief. (5)For all ye are sons of light, and sons of day; we are not of night, nor of darkness. (6)So then let us not sleep, as others; but let us watch and be sober. (7)For they that sleep, sleep in the night; and they that are drunken, ...
— The New Testament of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. • Various

... our joys doth blight, Lets trials overtake us, Takes that wherein our hearts delight, Look up to Him to make us, That to His goodness and His pow'r, That we've neglected heretofore, ...
— Paul Gerhardt's Spiritual Songs - Translated by John Kelly • Paul Gerhardt

... for the nesting season. The mammoth had also apparently tried to make its escape, but had perished in large numbers in the region of Escholtz Bay, at a section often called the Mammoth Graveyard. The birds and ducks seemed to be trying to overtake the retreating sun as it worked its way southward, the godwit continuing its flight as far as New Zealand, where it yet continues to spend the ...
— Short Sketches from Oldest America • John Driggs

... [mind] views to that ideal perfection which every [mind] genius born to excel is condemned always to pursue and never overtake. ...
— Life Of Johnson, Volume 4 (of 6) • Boswell

... the river to overtake and catch her, but she eluded them by crawling into the hollow limb, of a large fallen sycamore. They searched around for her some time, frequently stepping on the log which concealed her; and encamped near it that night. On the next day they went ...
— Chronicles of Border Warfare • Alexander Scott Withers

... a review of his affairs previous to the marriage, he had clearly foreseen would, before long, overtake him, were not slow in realising his worst omens. The increased expenses induced by his new mode of life, with but very little increase of means to meet them,—the long arrears of early pecuniary obligations, as well as the claims which had been, gradually, since then, accumulating, all pressed upon ...
— Life of Lord Byron, Vol. III - With His Letters and Journals • Thomas Moore

... consequently of two sledges and two casks, driving them both by voice and gesture rather than by rein. When they leave the Valtelline, the carters endeavour, as far as possible, to take the pass in gangs, lest bad weather or an accident upon the road should overtake them singly. At night they hardly rest three hours, and rarely think of sleeping, but spend the time in drinking and conversation. The horses are fed and littered; but for them too the night-halt is little better than a baiting-time. In fair weather the passage of the mountain ...
— Sketches and Studies in Italy and Greece • John Addington Symonds

... moral causes; neither do you half so much fear evil happening to you, as fear evil happening which ought not to happen to you. I believe what made me so courageous was the undeveloped fore-feeling, that, if any evil should overtake me in my father's company, I should not care; it would be all right then, anyhow. The repose was in my father himself, and neither in his strength nor his wisdom. The former might fail, the latter might ...
— The Vicar's Daughter • George MacDonald

... from us in sight; on seeing which five of the party got mounted and armed and went after them; they had taken the bullocks two-thirds of the way round the lake and by some means they broke back from them; they did their best to overtake and turn them again for about two or three miles; when they observed the horsemen they immediately took to flight, and where shelter was so abundant, of course, were immediately out of reach and sight of the horsemen. What their intentions were was difficult to say but it looked rather suspicious; ...
— McKinlay's Journal of Exploration in the Interior of Australia • John McKinlay

... till Mr. Waller taught it; he first made writing easily an art, first showed us to conclude the sense, most commonly, in distichs, which in the verse of those before him runs on for so many lines together, that the reader is out of breath to overtake it." ...
— Six Centuries of English Poetry - Tennyson to Chaucer • James Baldwin

... he asked himself, as he fixed his eyes longingly upon the steed. "Dick says none of the Apaches have any animal that can overtake him, and all I have to do is to keep his head turned toward the southwest. There is a trail through the mountains yonder, and Corporal Hugg told me that there is a trail all the way. ...
— Through Apache Lands • R. H. Jayne

... those niggers have come from?" "Look there, at that sailor man with a bit of a cable fastened on to his pole!" More than once Tom turned to try and catch hold one of the little jackanapes, but he was off so fast down some lane or other that even Tom could not overtake him. I advised him to give up the attempt, and to take their impertinence coolly. I kept Tom by me wherever I went, for I felt pretty certain that, should I once lose sight of him, he might never find his way ...
— Hurricane Hurry • W.H.G. Kingston

... cordial to her as living for a time under the same roof. She liked the ruddy, curly, independent, clever fellow of a farmer laird, who, out of the riches of his kindness, could be courteous and cordial to a poor plain girl. Bourhope could never overtake Chrissy coming from Dr. Stark's again. He spied and peeped and threw out hints, and hurried or loitered on the way to no purpose. Chrissy took care that people should not notice the fact of her being escorted home in ...
— Girlhood and Womanhood - The Story of some Fortunes and Misfortunes • Sarah Tytler

... and with a bodyguard of a few sturdy Picards, had already left the city. Claude was the first to reach the nobleman's headquarters, and, on learning of Roberval's departure only a few moments before, set spurs to his horse, hoping to overtake him before he could get clear of the walls. On arriving at the gate, however, he learned that the party had already passed through. There were three roads which would lead them to the ancient and renowned castle which frowned down upon the fruitful plains between the Bresle and the Somme. ...
— Marguerite De Roberval - A Romance of the Days of Jacques Cartier • T. G. Marquis

... spread at the top of the red precipice that the waters had cut Oliver knew that there was a knife in Roger's pocket. He took it out, cut the cord which tied his wrists, and threw the knife to a little distance, where Roger could easily reach it in order to free his legs; but not in time to overtake them before they should ...
— The Settlers at Home • Harriet Martineau

... things tumble, vanish, break, Death is sure to overtake Outcast, tramp, and tiniest fly ...
— Savva and The Life of Man • Leonid Andreyev

... detected in some crimes by which justice could lay hold, and poetical retribution fall upon him in the midst of his triumph. An inferior artist would certainly have allowed his story to end in this way. But Bunyan, satisfied though he was that dramatic judgments did overtake offenders in this world with direct and startling appropriateness, was yet aware that it was often otherwise, and that the worst fate which could be inflicted on a completely worthless person was to allow him to work out his career unvisited by any penalties ...
— Bunyan • James Anthony Froude

... "I'll overtake you," was Mrs. Briscoe's rejoinder, and until then Lillian had not noticed the employ of her hostess. The gardener was engaged in the removal of the more delicate ornamental growths about the porte-cochere ...
— The Ordeal - A Mountain Romance of Tennessee • Charles Egbert Craddock

... him, and to shun the latter, no matter how daintily served or how tempting the circumstances. The man who knows that pates de foie gras, or the livers of abnormally fattened geese, disagree with him, and still eats them, is not to be pitied when all the horrors of dyspepsia overtake him. ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 484, April 11, 1885 • Various

... then, doth that daunt thee?" "No," said Ralph, "by then it is nigh enough to hurt us, we shall be nigh enough to see it." "Well said!" quoth the minstrel; "but now we must mend our pace, or dark night shall overtake us amid these ...
— The Well at the World's End • William Morris

... wings are those of royal falcons, they are most eager for that exercise, as they are assured by these advantages from all danger; for, whether it be because of the swiftness of their ships or because of their skill in rowing them, no ship of ours has ever been able to overtake them. Assured on that point, they have pillaged whatever their greed has dictated to them. Their method of attack is for all of them to land at once with a terrifying and barbaric cry, the awfulness of which strikes terror ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 - Volume 40 of 55 • Francisco Colin

... west of the Mississippi is believed to have passed Dade County in full retreat upon northwestern Arkansas, leaving Missouri almost freed from the enemy, excepting in the southeast of the State. Assuming this basis of fact, it seems desirable, as you are not likely to overtake Price, and are in danger of making too long a line from your own base of supplies and reinforcements, that you should give up the pursuit, halt your main army, divide it into two corps of observation, one occupying Sedalia and the ...
— The Papers And Writings Of Abraham Lincoln, Complete - Constitutional Edition • Abraham Lincoln

... unworthy object of Esmeralda's affection, and she herself that of the (one need hardly say very different) affections of Frollo and Quasimodo; a charge of sorcery, based on the tricks she has taught Djali, must be fatal to her; and poetic justice must overtake Frollo, who has instigated the persecution but has half exchanged it for, half-combined it with, later attempts of a different kind upon her. Although this scenario may not have been then quite so easy for any ...
— A History of the French Novel, Vol. 2 - To the Close of the 19th Century • George Saintsbury

... to demonstrate the great and palpable deficiency in the speed of our ships of war. We may start a hundred of our best steamers on the track of the Alabama, and, without an accident, they can never overtake her. The only alternative is to accept the lesson which her example teaches, and to surpass her in those qualities which constitute her efficiency and make her formidable as a foe. This we must do, ...
— Continental Monthly, Vol. III, No IV, April 1863 - Devoted to Literature and National Policy • Various

... for the thousandth time, "and yet how lofty she is!—so lofty and so sweet! What will she be at thirty if she is this at seventeen? It makes me tremble to think of John's being blest so, as if it were too much, as if some fate must overtake him." ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. 15, - No. 87, March, 1875 • Various

... that he could not overtake the raven he cried to him, "Never mind; you may keep the light, ...
— A Treasury of Eskimo Tales • Clara Kern Bayliss

... riders drew rein at "The Hall" did Henry Mogridge overtake his cousin in the headlong race home. As it was, she dismounted before he could offer assistance and ran up the steps and across the white pillared veranda into the great wainscoted hall. An instant she paused, looking up at the portrait of ...
— Rodney, the Ranger - With Daniel Morgan on Trail and Battlefield • John V. Lane

... defeat at Dunbar, there still remained a strong royalist army in Scotland, which, in August of the following year, was pushed on into England with the hope of raising an insurrection in favour of Charles before Cromwell could overtake it. As soon as this sudden movement became known Cromwell wrote (4 Aug.) to parliament to gather a force together with all possible speed to hold the enemy in check ...
— London and the Kingdom - Volume II • Reginald R. Sharpe

... safe, but in that long four mile race that lay ahead many perils might be encountered, and it was even within the realm of possibilities that the fleet-footed Gallas would overtake the heavily-burdened camels. ...
— The River of Darkness - Under Africa • William Murray Graydon

... sport in the regions of. Imagination, to fancy that it has 'shuffled off this mortal coil', and is seeking its kindred element. But all these efforts are like the vain exertions of the hare in the fable. The slowly moving tortoise, the body, never fails to overtake the mind, however widely and extensively it may have ranged, and the brightest and most energetic intellects, unwillingly as they may attend to the first or second summons, must ultimately yield the empire of the brain ...
— An Essay on the Principle of Population • Thomas Malthus

... her. The men were all in the boat, but the midshipman had gone down for his spy-glass, or something else, and as it was merely with a view of ascertaining what the vessel was, and the chief object was to overtake the pirate vessel, to prevent the delay which was caused by the other midshipman not being ready, Mr Hippesley ordered me to go into the boat instead of him, and, as soon as I was on board of the schooner, to make sail and follow ...
— Percival Keene • Frederick Marryat

... drawn up at some distance from the platforms. The sun was on the horizon. In the red sky two monoplanes passed over our heads at no great height. The noise of their engines made everybody look up. They were flying north. And I felt a desire to rush upwards and overtake one of them and take my seat close to the pilot, behind the propeller which was spinning round and sending the wind of its giddy speed into his face. I longed to be able to lift myself into the air above the battlefields, ...
— In the Field (1914-1915) - The Impressions of an Officer of Light Cavalry • Marcel Dupont

... quick, man, quick! they're close upon my heels! It is the Viceroy's men are after me; If they should overtake me, ...
— Wilhelm Tell - Title: William Tell • Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller

... was compelled to castrate his own sons, who were four in number; and, being compelled, he did it; and after he had finished it, his sons, being compelled, castrated him. Thus did vengeance and Hermotimus overtake Panionius." Herodotus, viii, ...
— The Satyricon, Complete • Petronius Arbiter

... this sort," muttered Jack. He looked at the hills on either side, but they were too steep to ride up on horseback; and as to abandoning the animals and taking to the hills on foot, it was not to be thought of, for the active peasants would easily overtake them. ...
— The Bravest of the Brave - or, with Peterborough in Spain • G. A. Henty

... I promise clemency; I will not punish With vain disgrace a lie that's past. But if Thou now beguile me, then by my son's head I swear—an evil fate shall overtake thee, Requital such that Tsar Ivan Vasilievich Shall shudder in his ...
— Boris Godunov - A Drama in Verse • Alexander Pushkin

... we have not the horses. The stoutest of our enemies, those whom we must seize or slay, are mounted on steeds that could sweep past us like the wind. God helping us, we can put them to flight, but we cannot overtake them." ...
— Cyropaedia - The Education Of Cyrus • Xenophon

... her husband had been active Christians. They were prominent working members of the Episcopal Church. They knew, from happy experience, that solace and support were found in divine grace, so that this sudden and terrible affliction did not overtake them unawares, really. They were prepared for ...
— From Farm House to the White House • William M. Thayer

... which Clinch's cavalcade swept on in the direction of the mysterious shot left Hale no chance for reflection. He was conscious of shouting incoherently with the others, of urging his horse irresistibly forward, of momentarily expecting to meet or overtake something, but without any further thought. The figures of Clinch and Rawlins immediately before him shut out the prospect of the narrowing trail. Once only, taking advantage of a sudden halt that threw them confusedly together, he ...
— Snow-Bound at Eagle's • Bret Harte

... chapel they seemed to be very much surprised at seeing me. I told my host that I regretted to leave them so early in the day, but had an appointment to keep elsewhere. I would ride slowly out of town so that they could overtake me easily, should they wish to see me later, but nobody came, and after several hours I caught up with ...
— Tales of Aztlan • George Hartmann

... and he had a sudden longing to run to overtake Panaurov, to embrace him, to forgive him, to make him a present of a lot of money, and then to run off into the open country, into a wood, to run on and on without ...
— The Darling and Other Stories • Anton Chekhov

... her say, as I came running down swiftly—for I was dread afraid Dame Elizabeth should overtake me and snatch back the money—and I might have spared my fears, for had I harried the Queen's crown along with her crowns, no such a thing should ever have come in her head—"O Hilda!" saith the child, ...
— In Convent Walls - The Story of the Despensers • Emily Sarah Holt

... from behind, but she could not understand whether these were warnings or advice. Could they overtake her before she was flung off? She tried to recall the "elephant talk" Ahmed had taught her in the old days at the farm, but just now she was too dazed. At the end of an hour all sounds from the rear ...
— The Adventures of Kathlyn • Harold MacGrath

... So close the ground, and 'bout her shade Black curtains draw: my bride is laid. Sleep on, my Love, in thy cold bed Never to be disquieted! My last good-night! Thou wilt not wake Till I thy fate shall overtake: Till age, or grief, or sickness must Marry my body to that dust It so much loves; and fill the room My heart keeps empty in thy tomb. Stay for me there: I will not fail To meet thee in that hollow vale. And think not much of my delay: I am already on the way, And follow thee with all the speed Desire ...
— Book of English Verse • Bulchevy

... not distrusting them, confided to their care some bales of merchandise, which they packed on their horses: but, in making the transit, they darted up a narrow path among the rocks, and fled at full gallop toward the prairie, without its being possible to overtake them. Mr. Stuart had several shots fired over their heads, to frighten them, but it had no other effect than to increase their speed. Meanwhile our own people continued the transportation of the rest of the goods, and of the canoes; but as there was a great number of natives about, ...
— Narrative of a Voyage to the Northwest Coast of America in the years 1811, 1812, 1813, and 1814 or the First American Settlement on the Pacific • Gabriel Franchere

... watercourse, where we had encamped on the 31st of August, striking it a little lower down. As I had left one or two trifles here, that I wished to take on with me, I sent the black boy for them, telling him to follow my tracks while I went slowly on. Upon finding that he did not overtake me so soon as I expected, I halted for some time, but still he did not come up, and I again proceeded; for as I had left my former track, I concluded he had taken that line, and thus missed me. Steering, therefore, across ...
— Journals Of Expeditions Of Discovery Into Central • Edward John Eyre

... very shy." "I'll spare no pains, no arts, no shifts! His servants I'll corrupt with gifts. To-day though driven from his gate, What matter? I will lie in wait, To catch some lucky chance; I'll meet Or overtake him in the street; I'll haunt him like his shadow. Nought In life without much toil is bought." Just at this moment who but my Dear friend Aristius should come by? My rattlebrain right well he knew. We stop. "Whence, friends, and whither to?" ...
— Horace • Theodore Martin

... the riddle for you," he said airily. "I lost my way the other evening coming home late. You see there had been some mistake and my car didn't come to the club for me. I started on foot, leaving word for it to overtake me—" He lied as he went along. He had had a short lifetime of practice and did it quite naturally and easily, "and I was thinking about you and how soon I dared ask you a certain question, when all at once I noticed that things seemed sort of unfamiliar. I turned to go back ...
— Lo, Michael! • Grace Livingston Hill

... me, I think," he said. "It is not difficult to read your threat. The moment I am gone, you will run to inform against me. You will set the marechaussee on my heels to overtake me." ...
— Scaramouche - A Romance of the French Revolution • Rafael Sabatini

... narrated at length, and with the seriousness of history. Talk of the modern novel; here is a modern history. And if I had the misfortune to found a school, the legitimate historian might lie down and die, for he could never overtake his material. Here is a little tale that has not "caret"-ed its ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 25 (of 25) • Robert Louis Stevenson

... good-looking withal; I don't see why he shouldn't die a millionaire. At all events he must do something. When a man has, at thirty-two, a net income of considerably less than nothing, he can scarcely hope to overtake a fortune before he himself is overtaken by age and philosophy—two deplorable obstructions. I am afraid that one of them has already planted itself in my path. What am I? What do I wish? Whither do I tend? What do I believe? I am constantly beset ...
— Stories by American Authors, Volume 5 • Various

... assured him and politely begged instant and accurate knowledge of a number of things, of a knife and a bullet, of Themar's spying, of a cuff, of the man by the fire who read Herodotus, of a motorcyclist seeking for days to overtake a nomad. ...
— Diane of the Green Van • Leona Dalrymple

... Montague"; but do not, if you have any respect for that thrice happy age, the halcyon days of jackets and frills, befog their brains with the musty records of departed years. Let the lads enjoy their summer vacation, radiant, happy, heedless of the future. Alas! it may yet overtake them soon enough! What care could contract their brow? Have they not fed for the day their rabbits, their pigeons, their guinea-pigs? Is not that faithful Newfoundland dog "Boatswain," who saved from drowning one of their school-mates, ...
— Picturesque Quebec • James MacPherson Le Moine

... struck a trail. The old Wanderobo guide said it was only an hour or so old and that we should soon overtake the elephant. It was evidently only one elephant and not a large one. It is fascinating to watch an experienced elephant hunter and to see how eloquent the trail is to him. A broken twig means something, the blades of grass turned a certain ...
— In Africa - Hunting Adventures in the Big Game Country • John T. McCutcheon

... thing to prevent his hastening to join Jack must have been his inability to do so. There was the remote possibility that his accident had been of a nature that involved no one else—such, for instance, as sudden illness, though Jack had never known anything like that to overtake his friend. ...
— Two Boys in Wyoming - A Tale of Adventure (Northwest Series, No. 3) • Edward S. Ellis

... in any want of knowledge, or presence of mind, but rather from carelessness and an unworthy estimate of the abilities of the borele to overtake him. He had long been a successful hunter, and success too often begets that over-confidence which leads to many a mischance, that the more ...
— The Giraffe Hunters • Mayne Reid

... a day, perhaps two days, in Genoa. It is just possible you might overtake him by going ...
— Sunrise • William Black

... disagreeable and inconvenient to both; guilt gave shame frequent uneasiness, and shame often betrayed the secret conspiracies of guilt. After long disagreeement, therefore, they at length consented to part for ever. Guilt boldly walked forward alone, to overtake fate, that went before in the shape of an executioner: but shame being naturally timorous, returned back to keep company with virtue, which, in the beginning of their journey, they had left behind. Thus, my children, after men have ...
— The Vicar of Wakefield • Oliver Goldsmith

... on!" she called as she stopped at the curb and, tooted the horn. "Hurry! I want to overtake Walter. He and Jack have just ...
— The Motor Girls • Margaret Penrose

... safe. No horse that the stragglers have stolen can overtake Gypsy. Now, don't say anything more. It is best that I should go. I will run on ahead, and enter the house quietly. I will take the lamp to the room at the side, where the window opens to the floor. Carry him around there. ...
— In the Midst of Alarms • Robert Barr

... interesting. Having only one baby left, his mother was able to carry him with her wherever she went. And she would not have left him alone again for the world, lest the unknown but dreadful fate which had befallen his sister should overtake him also. ...
— Children of the Wild • Charles G. D. Roberts

... Cauldstaneslap. Going to church of a Sunday, as the lady housekeeper stepped with her skirts kilted, three tucks of her white petticoat showing below, and her best India shawl upon her back (if the day were fine) in a pattern of radiant dyes, she would sometimes overtake her relatives preceding her more leisurely in the same direction. Gib of course was absent: by skreigh of day he had been gone to Crossmichael and his fellow-heretics; but the rest of the family would be seen marching ...
— Weir of Hermiston • Robert Louis Stevenson

... single brush trailing from their sleigh for a trophy, seeking their inn. They tell me that if the fox would remain in the bosom of the frozen earth he would be safe, or if he would run in a straight line away no foxhound could overtake him; but, having left his pursuers far behind, he stops to rest and listen till they come up, and when he runs he circles round to his old haunts, where the hunters await him. Sometimes, however, he will run upon a wall many rods, and then leap off far to one side, and he appears to know that water ...
— Walden, and On The Duty Of Civil Disobedience • Henry David Thoreau

... disengaged it from her belt, and threw it towards me. The door closed behind her as she spoke. I galloped on to overtake the staff, et voila tout. Now, Charley, read my fate for me, and tell me ...
— Charles O'Malley, The Irish Dragoon, Volume 2 (of 2) • Charles Lever

... We shall have to wait until our air gets warm again, and then this glass will clear. We can't do anything till then. It's night here yet; we must wait for the day to overtake us. Meanwhile, ...
— The First Men In The Moon • H. G. Wells

... standing near the window and I knew that once in the street I might gain the plaza and safety before the creature could overtake me; at least there was a chance for safety in flight, against almost certain death should I ...
— A Princess of Mars • Edgar Rice Burroughs

... I groaned, 'at only these; The heart grows hardened with perpetual wont, And palters with a feigned necessity, Bargaining with itself to be content; Let me behold thy face.' The Form replied: 'Men follow Duty, never overtake; Duty nor lifts her veil nor looks behind.' But, as she spake, a loosened lock of hair Slipped from beneath her hood, and I, who looked To see it gray and thin, saw amplest gold; 90 Not that dull metal dug from sordid earth, But such as the retiring sunset flood Leaves heaped on bays and capes ...
— The Complete Poetical Works of James Russell Lowell • James Lowell

... to overtake a lad, who tapped him on the back and invited him to play a game of tag. As he passed close to Herbert, that boy threw out his foot and Nick went sprawling headlong, his book and slate flying from under his arm, while his cap shot a dozen-feet ...
— Through Forest and Fire - Wild-Woods Series No. 1 • Edward Ellis



Words linked to "Overtake" :   raise, devastate, evoke, advance, provoke, compete, fire, seize, get hold of, arouse, pass on, go on, clutch, vie, lock, overwhelm, kill, enkindle, clear, top, benight, march on, contend, kindle, knock out, stagger, elicit, overtaking, move on, progress, get by



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