c1425 Edward, Duke of York Master of Game (Vesp. B.xii) (1904) 66 (MED) Houndes for þe hauke..leden þe houndes about and makyn hem ouersheet and faile.

1589 J. Sparke in R. Hakluyt Princ. Navigations iii. 534 A Spaniard, who told him how farre off he was from Rio de la Hacha which because he would not ouershoote, ankered that night againe.

1599 J. Lok in R. Hakluyt Princ. Navigations (new ed.) II. i. 106 Wee were short 80 miles of the place, whereas we thought wee had beene ouershot by east fiftie miles.

1795 W. Herschel in Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 85 392 This method will even throw back the figure upon the dial, if it should have been overshot a little.

a1862 H. D. Thoreau Maine Woods (1864) i. 49 The pole is set close to the boat, and the prow is made to overshoot, and just turn the corners of the rocks.

1920 Flight 12 368 (caption) Pilot heads..for aerodrome, knowing for certain he will overshoot.

1974 P. Erdman Silver Bears iii. 54 The MG suddenly swung off the road... Doc was caught by surprise and overshot. Slowly he backed up.

1995 Independent 21 Feb. 1/2 Four trains..missed stopping at stations altogether, three..overshot by half a mile or more.

c1450 ( G. Chaucer Bk. Duchess 383 The houndes had overshote [v.rr. ouershette, ouershet, ouyrshotte] hym alle And were on a defaute y-falle.

1594 W. Shakespeare Venus & Adonis (new ed.) sig. Eiij The purblind hare,..to ouer-shut his troubles, How he outruns the wind, and with what care, He crankes and crosses with a thousand doubles.

1610 N. Downton Jrnl. Nov. in S. Purchas Pilgrimes (1625) I. iii. xii. 281 A short saile all night, to the end not to ouer-shoote Aden.

1711 London Gaz. No. 4912/2 This Vessel..hath over-shot her Port.

1751 R. Morris Life John Daniel in Lib. Impostors (1926) I. xiv. 159 We rose, and away we went to the mountain's edge; but..he being obliged to keep the handle moving till I came round, we had now over-shot the mountain.

1803 Naval Chron. 9 160 She overshot her port in the night.

1885 Law Times 80 135/2 In consequence of the train overshooting the platform.

1942 T. Kitching Diary 23 May in Life & Death in Changi (1998) vi. 98 In the blackout, I overshot the right turn and walked into someone's camp bed in the passage.

1987 Canad. Geographic Dec. 35/1 [He] proved that the outrun was too short when he overshot the counterslope and flew completely out of the bowl.

a1500 (?a1400) Wars Alexander (Trin. Dublin) 1767* (MED) Yf þou shote ouer sheet, þou shendes þi flayne.

1548 Hall's Vnion: Henry VII f. xviij^v Their enemyes discharged their ordinaunce..and ouershot them.

1555 R. Eden tr. Peter Martyr of Angleria Decades of Newe Worlde iii. iv. f. 108 So to ouershute them, that none myght be hurt therby.

1670 J. Milton Hist. Brit. i. 12 In this Diana overshot her Oracle.

1703 Clarendon's Hist. Rebellion II. ix. 507 [They] discharged their Cannon at them, but over-shot them.

1782 W. Cowper Conversation in Poems 244 That fire..which impells rash youth, Proud of his speed to overshoot the truth.

1835 R. Browning Paracelsus v. 163 Your cunning has o'ershot its aim.

1862 R. F. Burton City of Saints (ed. 2) i. 89 The whites imprudently discharged both their cannon, overshooting the tents of the enemy.

1946 Sun (Baltimore) 2 July 17/6 Lawson Little overshot the greens and three-putted frequently.

1990 Australian 27 Feb. (Brisbane ed.) 20/4 If you overshot the target (line 210), you'll be told how many metres beyond it your cannon ball landed.

1625 G. Markham Souldiers Accidence 9 The hindmost must..shoot their fellowes before through the heads, or els will overshoot.

1743 A. Pope Ess. Man (new ed.) iii. 89 But honest Instinct comes a volunteer; Sure never to o'er-shoot, but just to hit.

1864 Official Rep. Battles (Confederate States Amer. War Dept.) 121 Brisk fires were opened and kept up by the enemy.., his men generally overshooting, while ours were constantly warned to aim low.

1897 Outing 30 329/1 If I happened to overshoot I was bound to bag a heifer.

1950 Reader's Digest Nov. 57 If they aim at me they will overshoot or undershoot and scrag some scared civilian.

1514 T. Darcy Let. 18 May in Lett. Richard Fox (1929) 77 I hav ouershott my selff, with paymentis to be mayd in ouershortt tym.

1530 J. Palsgrave Lesclarcissement 649/2 I never wyste wyseman overshote hymselfe thus sore.

1611 M. Smith in Bible (King James) Transl. Pref. 11 He was the first in a maner, that put his hand to write Commentaries..and therefore no marueile, if he ouershot himselfe many times.

1678 J. Norris Coll. Misc. (1699) 84 So th' eager Hawk makes sure of's prize, Strikes with full might, but over-shoots himself and dyes.

1748 S. Richardson Clarissa IV. xxvii. 160 And there she stopt; having almost overshot herself; as I designed she should.

1834 T. Carlyle Sartor Resartus iii. x. 103/2 His irony has overshot itself; we see through it, and perhaps through him.

1904 N.E.D. (at cited word) To be overshot: to have overshot oneself, to be wide of the mark.

1996 Bangor (Maine) Daily News (Nexis) 23 May Gormley overshoots himself vocally on this one, and his booming voice takes more space than music director Robert Bahr should have allowed.

1535 T. Cromwell in R. B. Merriman Life & Lett. T. Cromwell (1902) II. 44 Ye ar farre ouershotte.

1578 J. Lyly Euphues f. 4^v I aunswere, and sweare to that you were not therein a lyttle ouershot, eyther you gaue too muche credite to the report of others, or to much lybertie to your owne iudgement.

1581 J. Studley tr. Seneca Hercules Oetæus ii, in T. Newton et al. tr. Seneca 10 Trag. f. 197 Whyle Hercules at randon roues, and ouershot with wyne Doth rudely dandle on his lap the Lidiane Lady fyne.

1605 G. Chapman et al. Eastward Hoe iv. sig. F4 Sea. Death, Collonell, I knew you were ouer shot. Pet. Sure I thinke now indeede, Captaine Seagull, we were something ouershot.

1656 H. Jeanes Treat. Fulnesse of Christ 20 in Mixture Scholasticall Divinity Then are they much overshot and deeply to be blamed, who..harden their hearts against Gods..calling.

1549 M. Coverdale et al. tr. Erasmus Paraphr. 1 John v. f. liii^v As whan by occasion we ouershote a worde agaynste oure frende, whiche we are sory for by and by that it ouer shot us.

1624 R. Burton Anat. Melancholy (ed. 2) ii. iii. iii. 268 A word ouershot, a blowe in choler, a game at tables..may make vs equall in an instant.

1583 P. Stubbes Anat. Abuses sig. Liiij, 139 Wherin, as I do acknowledge they are but too scrupelous, and ouershoot the marke, so we are therin plaine contempteous and negligent, shooting short of the marke altogether.

1588 A. Fraunce Lawiers Logike Ded. sig. ¶¶3^v See how farre I haue ouershot my marke.

a1661 T. Fuller Worthies (1662) Lincs. 151 I believe they overshoot the Mark, who make it a Miracle, they undershoot it who make it Magick.

1702 Eng. Theophrastus 303 The greatest fault of a penetrating wit is not coming short of the mark but overshooting it.

1770 T. Percy tr. P. H. Mallet Northern Antiq. I. ix. 237 Senseless fury..always over-shoots the mark it aims at.

1848 A. Brontë Tenant of Wildfell Hall II. iii. 49 If he overshot the mark one night, the effects of it rendered him so miserable the next day that he must repeat the offence to mend it.

1874 Internat. Rev. Mar. 171 Confirming the suspicion that the value deduced from the former transit of Venus had overshot the mark.

1933 S. W. Cole Pract. Physiol. Chem. (ed. 9) xiv. 339 It is advisable to add this during the course of the titration; otherwise there is a risk of overshooting the mark.

1992 Chicago Tribune 28 Aug. i. 7/1 The dollar may have overshot its mark and could be as much as 17 percent undervalued.

1697 J. Collier Ess. Moral Subj. (ed. 2) i. vi. 216 How often it Drops, or overshoots by the Disproportions of Distance, or Application.

1785 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 75 460 The measurement was gradually found..to over-shoot the pickets, and at last over-reached the south-east pipe by 17.875 inches.

1912 Proc. Royal Soc. 1911–12 B. 84 318 There is following upon the inhibitory depression an exaltation of its activity—‘rebound’. The balance is therefore not only regained but overshot.

1932 Amer. Naturalist 66 264 The heating system usually has a lag great enough to make the temperature overshoot in both directions.

1991 Banker Sept. 32/3 Inflation is creeping up, targets for credit expansion and the budget deficit have been overshot.

2020 M. Blondeel COVID-19 & Climate (report) (Egmont Institute) 4/1 If low carbon development strategies and policies are not rolled out in the economic stimulus packages responding to the COVID-19 pandemic recovery, emissions will recover and even overshoot previously projected levels by 2030.

c1540 (?a1400) Gest Historiale Destr. Troy 7620 A thicke Rayn..Ouershotyng with shoures thurgh þere shene tenttes.

1642 T. Fuller Holy State i. iii. 8 He overshoots such low matter as lie levell to a womans eye.

1671 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 6 2100 Sometimes it falls out [when digging in search of mineral ore], that we may over-shoot a Load, that is, get the upper side of it.

1767 W. Harte Amaranth 182 High-rais'd on fortune's hill, new Alps he spies, O'ershoots the valley which beneath him lies.

1785 W. Cowper Task i. 496 While yet the beams Of day-spring overshoot his humble nest.

1887 G. Meredith Ballads & Poems 114 She, with the plunging lightnings overshot.

a1586 Sir P. Sidney Def. of Poetrie (1595) sig. F4^v And lastly and chiefly, they cry out with open mouth as if they had ouershot Robinhood, that Plato banished them [sc. poets] out of his Commonwealth.

a1628 F. Greville Life of Sidney (1651) vii. 85 [Sir Philip] over-shoots his father in-law..in his own bow.

1673 O. Heywood Autobiogr., Diaries, Anecd. & Event Bks. (1882) I. 357 Who knows but god may overshoot the devil in his oun bow.

1819 W. Scott Ivanhoe I. xiii. 269 This is no fair chance..to compel me to peril myself against the best archers of Leicester and Staffordshire, under the peril of infamy if they should overshoot me.

1890 A. Conan Doyle White Company xxxiv I have little doubt that you can overshoot me, and yet I have seen bowmen who could send a cloth-yard arrow further than you could speed a quarrel.

1883 Col. Howard in Times 26 July 7/6 I think, perhaps, there was a little conspiracy..to offer us so much practice that we should overshoot ourselves.