Word family noun pay payment repayment payer payee adjective paid ≠ unpaid underpaid ≠ overpaid payable verb pay repay underpay ≠ overpay
From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishoverpayo‧ver‧pay /ˌəʊvəˈpeɪ $ ˌoʊvər-/ verb (past tense and past participle overpaid) 1 [transitive]PAY somebody FOR WORK to pay someone more money than they deserve OPP underpay Most big companies continue to overpay their top executives.2 [intransitive, transitive] to pay too much money for something OPP underpay Try to recover any tax you have overpaid. —overpayment noun [countable, uncountable]→ See Verb tableExamples from the Corpus
overpay• The current account mortgage lets you overpay and underpay and there are no penalties.• By paying £60 cash Miss J. Paige's room 504 would have overpaid by £3.75.• Unnerving because if you mess up, you could overpay or face an audit.• We overpaid our taxes this year.• Moreover, surveyors are sometimes pressurised by the subcontractor to overpay, particularly when output has been restricted during adverse weather conditions.• Businesspeople who use the per diem rule get into trouble because they overpay per diem rates.• And Pima County will still overpay the same lobbyists to be in Phoenix.• Your patience is appreciated and we apologise if we have been overpaying you.From Longman Business Dictionaryoverpayo‧ver‧pay /ˌəʊvəˈpeɪˌoʊvər-/ verb (past tense and past participle overpaid)1[intransitive, transitive]HUMAN RESOURCES to pay someone more than they deserve or are owedThe effect of the tax change is that a lot of people will overpay and will then have to claim refunds.overpay byThe Pentagon claims the two defense firms were overpaid by more than $1.3 billion over the years. —overpayment noun [uncountable]alleged overpayment of taxesThere has been an overpayment of $170,000 on this contract.2[intransitive] to pay too much for something in relation to its real valueoverpay forDid we overpay for the company? The price was probably on the high side.→ See Verb table 