overtaken

He was still out there, but settled down, and middle-aged; I imagined him -- grown portly in figure and domestic in his habits; in short, overtaken by the fate common to all except to those who, being specially beloved by the gods, get knocked on the head early.

'Twixt Land and Sea Joseph Conrad 1890

It was the careful plea of guilty with an explanation—of smoking but not inhaling—that struck many as ludicrously clever, but the phrase was overtaken by “‘is’ is.”

The Right Word in the Right Place at the Right Time William Safire 2004

It was the careful plea of guilty with an explanation—of smoking but not inhaling—that struck many as ludicrously clever, but the phrase was overtaken by “‘is’ is.”

The Right Word in the Right Place at the Right Time William Safire 2004

To my enquiries he replied, that, being on horseback, he thought he could have overtaken a kangaroo, which passed him whilst waiting at the creek for the cattle, and that in the attempt, he lost himself.

Two Expeditions into the Interior of Southern Australia — Complete Charles Sturt 1832

To my enquiries he replied, that, being on horseback, he thought he could have overtaken a kangaroo, which passed him whilst waiting at the creek for the cattle, and that in the attempt, he lost himself.

Two Expeditions into the Interior of Southern Australia — Volume I Charles Sturt 1832

Along with his boss, he worried that the White House had been so "overtaken" by the anthrax scare that it was unable to manage other vital issues effectively, notably fallout from a war that lasts through winter.

Behind The Smiles 2007

One thing is certain: for the speaker this encounter with the urn is full of surprise, and what he has seen has "overtaken" his mind.

Deforming Keat's 'Ode on a Grecian Urn' 2003

If I had had nothing else to do and had devoted my entire life to the occupation which Gray thought not undesirable as regards Marivaux and Crébillon, I doubt whether I could have "overtaken," as the Scotch say, the entire prose fiction of 1800-1900 in French.

A History of the French Novel, Vol. 2 To the Close of the 19th Century George Saintsbury 1889

But this we do know, that the success of the "Children of Israel" in not being "overtaken" has been the prototype of father to son in every effort to do so from that day to the present.

Shadow and Light An Autobiography with Reminiscences of the Last and Present Century Mifflin Wistar Gibbs 1885

Still, the fact must weigh against him that he suffered himself to be "overtaken" (to use the mildest euphemism at one's command) on such an august occasion.

Foreign and Colonial Intelligence 1865