(overruns, overrunning, overran)
1.
If an army or an armed force overruns a place, area, or country, it succeeds in occupying it very quickly.
A group of rebels overran the port area and most of the northern suburbs...
VERB: V n
2.
If you say that a place is overrun with things that you consider undesirable, you mean that there are a large number of them there.
The Hotel has been ordered to close because it is overrun by mice and rats...
Padua and Vicenza are prosperous, well-preserved cities, not overrun by tourists.
ADJ: v-link ADJ, usu ADJ with/by n
3.
If an event or meeting overruns by, for example, ten minutes, it continues for ten minutes longer than it was intended to.
Tuesday's lunch overran by three-quarters of an hour...
The talks overran their allotted time.
VERB: V by n, V n, also V
4.
If costs overrun, they are higher than was planned or expected. (BUSINESS)
We should stop the nonsense of taxpayers trying to finance new weapons whose costs always overrun hugely...
Costs overran the budget by about 30%.
VERB: V, V n
•
Overrun is also a noun.
He was stunned to discover cost overruns of at least $1 billion.
N-COUNT: usu n N