to overbook
13
3.7
Sell or accept more bookings than there is space for
- verb
- /ˌoʊvərˈbʊk/
:
sobrevender
- Due to a system error, we accidentally overbooked the conference room.
- overbooked flight
- airlines overbook
- overbooked doctors
Examples
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Unfortunately, first class is overbooked.
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The airline had to compensate passengers because they overbooked the flight.
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I know I overbooked you.
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- No, we're overbooked by 40%.
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But they are overbooked this time of year.
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And some events will be overbooked, and it can be unpredictable which ones.
Blog text (12) -
The hotel had overbooked, though, and told us we wouldn't be staying there.
Blog text (34) -
The hotel in the Vineyard is overbooked.
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They overbooked the hotel.
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They overbooked first class.
Synonyms
to oversell
vsto overbook
1
4.5
Sell more of something than you can supply
applies when bookings or tickets exceed available seats or capacity
How Booked
Surface Forms
overbook infinitive
overbooked past
overbooked past participle
overbooking present participle
overbooks third person singular
Morphology
Etymology
The word overbook combines over- meaning 'too much' or 'above', and book meaning 'to reserve', as when you 'book a room'. So it literally means 'to reserve too many', which is why it describes taking more bookings than there is space for.