overdrive
Meanings
Plural: overdrives
Noun
- the state of high or excessive activity or productivity or concentration
- "Troops are ready to go into overdrive as soon as the signal is given"
- "Melissa's brain was in overdrive"
- a high gear used at high speeds to maintain the driving speed with less output power
- A gear, on an automobile, higher than the traditional top gear, mainly to allow better fuel economy at highway speeds. In the 21st century, such gears are no longer viewed as "extra" and thus rarely called by this name.
- A state of heightened activity.
- Freewheeling (driving a vehicle with the transmission in neutral) on downhill stretches to achieve higher fuel economy and/or speed than otherwise. In colloquial registers, ethnically bigoted variants have been common, such as Jewish overdrive (alluding to the stereotype of miserly Jews) or Mexican overdrive or Polish overdrive (alluding to stereotypes of foolishness and poverty).
- A gear ratio higher than 1:1: one in which a single revolution of the driving element corresponds to more than one revolution of the driven element.
Verb
- drive or work too hard
- make use of too often or too extensively
- To drive too hard, or far, or beyond strength.
Origin / Etymology
From Middle English overdriven, from Old English oferdrīfan, equivalent to over- + drive. Cognate with Saterland Frisian uurdrieuwe (“to overdo, overstate”), Dutch overdrijven (“to exaggerate”), German Low German overdrieven, överdrieven (“to overdo, exaggerate”), German übertreiben (“to overdo, exaggerate”), Norwegian overdrive (“to exaggerate”).
Synonyms
;, full throttle, O.D., O/D, OD, overuse, see at angel gear, top gear
Antonyms
low gear
Scrabble Score: 16
overdrive is a valid Scrabble (US) TWL wordoverdrive is a valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
overdrive is a valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary