overclaim

verb

over·​claim ˌō-vər-ˈklām 

overclaimed; overclaiming

transitive + intransitive

1

: to claim too much of (something, such as an expense)

Not shockingly, the most popular form of deceit is underreporting income, followed by overclaiming deductions.

—Maurie Backman

… handed back more than £70,000 of taxpayers' money after overclaiming on expenses …

—Tim Shipman

2

: to make a false or exaggerated claim about (something)

has a tendency to overclaim his accomplishments

… allowed the researchers to, in effect, overclaim the significance of what they had found …

—Jesse Singal

Sometimes the product claims are valid, Martin says, but some sales reps are overclaiming.

—Lisa Guenther

overclaim noun

plural overclaims

… the process leads to millions of cases where taxpayers inadvertently make overclaims that the IRS does not identify until months later …

—Office of the (United States) National Taxpayer Advocate

the advertisement's alleged overclaims

Word History

First Known Use

1824, in the meaning defined at sense 1