hyperdrive
Americannoun
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(in science fiction) a mode or function of a spaceship’s engine that enables it to travel at speeds faster than light, typically by moving through hyperspace.
Sabotage caused the robot to accelerate the spacecraft into hyperdrive.
In the movie, they had to activate the hyperdrive to keep their spaceship from falling into the sun.
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Monsoon is the season when all of India goes into sowing-planting-growing hyperdrive.
Etymology
Origin of hyperdrive
First recorded in 1950–55; hyper- ( def. ) + drive ( def. ), perhaps based on hyperspace ( def. ) and overdrive ( def. )
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“Should we work together to shift everything closer to the imaginary hyperdrive? Should our greatest goal be to create a society with even more intense accelerations?”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 13, 2026
Many gastrointestinal cancers grow uncontrollably when a mutation sets a key biological pathway that governs cell growth, called Wnt, on hyperdrive.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 11, 2024
Lactate appears to send a signal through the receptor that kicks fat cell metabolism into hyperdrive, the team found.
From Science Magazine ● Apr. 2, 2024
Music also has made an unsettling shift over the years, from lyrics of intense longing to hyperdrive moments of half love, a paradigm that continues to leave Usher confused.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 8, 2024
So while teenage emotions have gone into hyperdrive, reason and logic are still obeying the speed limit.
From "The 57 Bus" by Dashka Slater
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
