Definition of "overtake" []

• To catch up with; draw even or level with. (verb-transitive)
• To pass after catching up with. (verb-transitive)
• To come upon unexpectedly; take by surprise: geopolitical strategists who were overtaken by events in southeast Asia. (verb-transitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Or could the chap who nabbed the Tour de France title overtake them both?"
• "Shall not his word overtake you though ministers that speak unto you will not live for ever?"
• "It may be realized that in spite of its air of being impossible to "overtake" -- I must, in this connection, continue to quote its mistress -- there was an attractiveness about the dwelling of the"