Over the top means far more extreme than the occasion called for. A gesture, a reaction, or a birthday cake.
It is shortened to OTT in British speech and writing, which is one of the few initialisms people say out loud. The phrase is nearly always a criticism, though an affectionate one, and describing a performance as over the top can be half a compliment. The origin is grim, since going over the top meant climbing out of a trench to attack in the First World War.
1phraseover the topExcessive and beyond what is reasonable.
“The decorations were a bit over the top.”
The adjectival form first appears c. 1935. See cite below. The adverbial form (in reference to World War I) first appears c. 1915.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in Idioms, A Man Called Ove
First appears in chapter 27 of A Man Called Ove.
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