overdo

verb

Etymology: From Middle English overdon, from Old English oferdōn, equivalent to over- + do.

1. To do too much; to exceed what is proper or true in doing; to carry too far.

   “I overdid the sweets during the holidays and put on some weight.”

   “[…] o’erstep not the modesty of nature: for anything so overdone is from the purpose of playing, whose end […] is to hold, as ’twere, the mirror up to nature;”

2. To cook for too long.

   “to overdo the meat”

   “[He] talked of a feast where he had been the day before, but that the venison was over-done.”

3. To give (someone or something) too much work; to require too much effort or strength of (someone); to use up too much of (something).

   “to overdo one’s strength”

   “Good God! hovv poore a thing is vvretched man? / So fraile, that let him ſtriue the beſt he can, / VVith euery little blaſt hee’s ouerdon.”

4. To do more than (someone); to do (something) to a greater extent.

   “In a delicate Garden, where Art hath shewed it’s vtmost, yee shall meet with Roses, Gillyflowers, and Fountaines of Alabaster and Iasper; but thou wilt not so much admire this, as if thou shouldst light on these dainties in a Desert, or in some craggie Mountain, where the hand of nature shall ouerdoe that of art and Industrie.”

   “[...] it would be their shame for ever to be overdone in mischiefe, nor were they here exceeded.”