godan verb (-su), intransitive verb
step out of the ring; put a foot outside the ring
Sumo term: a wrestler loses by stepping or being forced outside the dohyō boundary.
力士が土俵を踏み越して負けた。
The sumo wrestler stepped out of the ring and lost.
Standard kanji spelling for this sumo term.
Variant spelling without okurigana み; less common but still used.
踏み切る means to push off or take off from the ground, often in a jumping motion, while 踏み越す specifically refers to stepping over the boundary of the sumo ring.
Compound of 踏み (fumi, 'stepping', from 踏む) + 越す (kosu, 'to cross over'). The literal meaning is 'to step over/across', specialized in sumo for stepping outside the ring.