English · Idiom Candidate

over the top

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

Excessive or exaggerated beyond what is normal

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

quá mức hoặc phóng đại quá mức

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: above the upper boundary

Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

she went a bit over the top didn't she?

Occasionally and inevitably they go over the top — but that's in the nature of risk.

British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)

Sources & notes

Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.

Equivalents & related

Near equivalent ô dề Over the top; doing the absolute most — extra to the point of comedy. Tiếng Việt Near equivalent to the point Direct and concise, without unnecessary detail English · via ô dề

Lighter cards are two steps away in the meaning graph — equivalents of equivalents, reached via the entry shown on the card.

Common questions

What does “over the top” mean?

Excessive or exaggerated beyond what is normal Literally: above the upper boundary

Is “over the top” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.

What is the closest equivalent?

“ô dề” (Tiếng Việt) — near equivalent.