Meaning
To do or say too much; to act with excessive enthusiasm or to an unreasonable extreme. Informal, and usually a mild criticism or friendly warning, applied to spending, decorating, praising, dieting, or anything else carried past the point of sense. It suggests enthusiasm that has outrun judgement. Informal; typically mild criticism or a caution against excess. Regional use: General English.
Origin
'Overboard' simply means over a ship's side and into the water; Merriam-Webster dates the word to before the twelfth century, built on 'over' plus 'board', the ship's side. The figurative phrase is much younger: the American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms dates 'go overboard' to the mid-1900s, and Christine Ammer's Dictionary of Cliches places it in the first half of the twentieth century, citing John P. Marquand's Melville Goodwin, U.S.A. (1951). Ammer also records an obsolete earlier sense, 'to live beyond one's means'. The jump from literally going into the sea to doing anything to excess is a straightforward metaphor: someone who goes overboard has passed the line of safety or good sense.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- go overboard for
- go overboard with
- went overboard
Usage Examples
- The studio went overboard on special effects and forgot to write a decent plot.
- One compliment is welcome; going overboard with praise makes people suspicious.
- We went overboard with the buffet and had leftovers for a week.