übervorteilen

German

Etymology

15th century, from über- (“over-”) +‎ Vorteil (“advantage”) +‎ -en, meaning “to seek an advantage over”.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌyːbərˈfoːrtaɪ̯lən/, , ,
• IPA^(key): /ˌʏbər-/, (western Germany)

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: über‧vor‧tei‧len

Verb

übervorteilen (weak, third-person singular present übervorteilt, past tense übervorteilte, past participle übervorteilt, auxiliary haben)

1. (transitive, chiefly formal) to take advantage of; to give someone less than they deserve

Usage notes

• The sense is somewhat counterintuitive in view of the literal translation “to over-advantage someone”. Accordingly there may be occasional erroneous use of sich übervorteilen to mean “to take more than one deserves”. (The construction sich übervorteilen as such is not erroneous when meaning “to take advantage of each other”.)

Conjugation

Derived terms

• Übervorteilen, Übervorteiler, Übervorteilung

Further reading

• “übervorteilen” in Duden online
• “übervorteilen” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache