Overstep the mark
- (a)To tell people how successful you are
- (b)To step into someone else's areas of expertise
- (c)To upset someone by doing/saying more than you should
- (d)To do something in an excited way
Answer
C
Why
Correct — C, 'To upset someone by doing/saying more than you should'. To 'overstep the mark' means to go beyond the limits of what is acceptable or permitted — to say or do more than you should — which is exactly what option (c) describes.
Why the others are wrong
- (a)To tell people how successful you are — That is boasting or 'blowing your own trumpet', not exceeding an acceptable limit.
- (b)To step into someone else's areas of expertise — That is 'treading on someone's toes' / encroaching on their domain, a different idiom.
- (d)To do something in an excited way — This has no link to exceeding a boundary — the phrase is about crossing a limit, not enthusiasm.
Concept
'Overstep the mark' (or overstep the line) means to behave in a way that goes beyond what is acceptable or permitted.
Related PYQs
No directly related past PYQ was found.
Practice
- practice — not a real PYQ
Choose the correct meaning of the idiom 'cross the line'.
- (a)To win a race
- (b)To behave in an unacceptable way
- (c)To draw a boundary
- (d)To change sides
Answer(b) To behave in an unacceptable way — like 'overstep the mark', it means going beyond what is acceptable.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Choose the correct meaning of the idiom 'go too far'.
- (a)To travel a long distance
- (b)To exceed the limits of what is reasonable or acceptable
- (c)To arrive late
- (d)To aim very high
Answer(b) To exceed the limits of what is reasonable or acceptable — it matches the sense of overstepping the mark.