overdrive
Americanverb (used with object)
-
to push or carry to excess; overwork.
-
to drive too hard.
noun
-
Machinery, Automotive. a device containing a gear set at such ratio and arrangement as to provide a drive shaft speed greater than the engine crankshaft speed.
-
Also called hyperdrive. Informal. a state of intense activity or productivity.
The political campaign has shifted into overdrive.
noun
-
a very high gear in a motor vehicle used at high speeds to reduce wear and save fuel
-
in a state of intense activity
-
into a state of intense activity
verb
Etymology
Origin of overdrive
First recorded before 950; Middle English overdriven “to cover over, overpower”; Old English oferdrīfan “to drive away, overthrow”; equivalent to over- ( def. ) + drive ( def. )
Vocabulary lists containing overdrive
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.
See Examples For:
"Our study suggests that's not necessarily a broken pattern-separation system, but possibly an overactive version of a normal survival mechanism gone into overdrive," said Brandon.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 3, 2026
Mayne feels viewers "don't realise how hard the game is", with players' minds constantly in overdrive.
From BBC ● Oct. 30, 2026
Now AI has put promotion, and occasionally outright deception, into overdrive.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 25, 2026
The news that she was dating Ventimiglia kicked the frenzy into overdrive, especially since he was 30 years old at the time while she was 18.
From Salon ● Aug. 19, 2026
The more I think the more my head hurts, and lately my brain has been in constant overdrive.
From "Challenger Deep" by Neal Shusterman
His music married the pomp of musical theater with the overdriven emotions of rock ‘n’ roll, a combination unveiled on “Bat Out of Hell,” the 1977 album he wrote for Meat Loaf.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 20, 2021
For years, the title of the band’s first single, “Young Hearts Spark Fire,” was a rallying cry, and the pair’s overdriven, heart-on-sleeve approach reached its apotheosis on 2012’s “Celebration Rock.”
From Washington Post ● Jul. 10, 2018
Musselwhite’s tones range from Little Walter-like overdriven vamps to a caressing contribution reminiscent of Larry Adler on the excellent album-ending ballad “Nothing at All.”
From Washington Times ● Mar. 29, 2018
The guitars have the low-fi distortion and unhurried attack of indie-rock; drums and bass are choppy and overdriven, like old-school hip-hop.
From New York Times ● Mar. 10, 2017
The work was genuine work, and we were not overdriven.
From "The Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula K. Le Guin
I’ve been amplifying the ukulele through a pick-up and then overdriving it in a really great tube amp, so the texture became not the stereotypical strum of the ukulele.
From New York Times ● Apr. 17, 2011
Did you never think of it,—men are cheap, and machinery is dear; many a superintendent is dismissed for overdriving a delicate machine, who wouldn't be dismissed for overdriving an overtaxed man.
From The New Freedom A Call For the Emancipation of the Generous Energies of a People by Woodrow Wilson
To diminish the inducement for overdriving, the method of paying the overseers by crop shares, which commonly prevailed in the colonial period, was generally replaced in the nineteenth century by that of fixed salaries.
From American Negro Slavery A Survey of the Supply, Employment and Control of Negro Labor as Determined by the Plantation Regime by Ulrich Bonnell Phillips
The Clinton tried with me, and I had to keep my esper carefully aimed at the road ahead because I was definitely overdriving my eyesight and reaction-time.
From Highways in Hiding by George Oliver Smith
He also knows that overdriving will only shorten the days of his usefulness; he therefore wisely lets him stagger by unmolested, with his light load.
From The Pirate City An Algerine Tale by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
Random Word
Spin the wheel and learn a new word!
Get a wordDefinitions 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.
