Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English - overtake

~ v past tense overtook, past participle overtaken 1 to go past a moving vehicle or person because you are going faster than them and want to get in front of them  (He pulled out to overtake the red van.) 2 if something bad overtakes you, it happens to you suddenly and prevents you from doing what you had planned to do + by  (We'd both been overtaken by sheer fatigue) 3 to develop or increase more quickly than someone or something else and become bigger, better, or more advanced than them  (By 1970 the Americans had overtaken the Russians in space technology.) 4 be overtaken by events if you are overtaken by events, the situation changes, so that your plans or ideas are not useful any more  (His last years were spent working from a theory that was rapidly being overtaken by events.)