Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Given an undue amount of credit for quality or merit in a field; not necessarily related to popularity.
  • verb Simple past tense and past participle of overrate.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

over- +‎ rated.

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Examples

  • Making an argument about things or people being overrated is usually something that morons do.

    Matthew Yglesias » Hinderacker: Gandhi, Mandela are Overrated 2010

  • Judging by the comments that previous Overrated lists have received not to mention the book itself, many people don't like it when something is called "overrated."

    7 Overrated Things That Are Actually Pretty Good (But Still Overrated) (PHOTOS) 2011

  • It wasn't till twenty years later that it started to become a fixture among the greatest films of all time lists, indeed even now a lot of people call it overrated (they're wrong by the way).

    Kicking The Dog SVGL 2009

  • Mildred Pierce, while overrated, is another great example of what you are talking about.

    Swinging with the proto-feminists 2008

  • Among the overrated is Mihir Bose's Bollywood, plucked from the crowd by Mark Cousins pegs: "Contains the line, 'he was so nervous that he was a bundle of nerves,' which, when I read it on the train, made me laugh so much that people got impatient."

    GreenCine Daily: Shorts, 12/13. 2006

  • Bill Simmons aka ESPN's Sportsguy likes to write about a concept he calls overrated underrated athletes.

    The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com David Cantor 2011

  • Judging by the comments that previous OverRated lists have received not to mention the book itself, many people don't like it when something is called "overrated".

    The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com Mark Juddery 2011

  • I would say that everything is rated pretty accurately, and the only reason most people use the terms overrated and underrated is because their opinion differs from the norm and they can't think of a better way to argue their point.

    MVN 2009

  • I use the word overrated because my friends kept telling me The Untouchables was a 10.

    unknown title 2009

  • But I'd really have to disagree that No Country is "overrated" -- the book is damned good, and the movie's damned good ...

    Mike Miley: The Coen Brothers' Mean Streak 2008

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