overdrive
Americanverb (used with object)
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to push or carry to excess; overwork.
-
to drive too hard.
noun
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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.
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Also called hyperdrive. Informal. a state of intense activity or productivity.
The political campaign has shifted into overdrive.
noun
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a very high gear in a motor vehicle used at high speeds to reduce wear and save fuel
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in a state of intense activity
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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:
Things came to a head on tour, where her stage fright went into overdrive and she suffered "just terrible, terrible anxiety".
From BBC ● Sep. 6, 2026
Here are some of the products and practices that are sending the pace of construction into overdrive:
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 1, 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 awards stuff hasn’t really kicked into overdrive yet, so it hasn’t been too much of a distraction.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 6, 2026
My heart kicks into overdrive, and my butterflies scratch my insides with their sharp wings.
From "Red Flags and Butterflies" by Sheryl Azzam
The enveloping roar of distorted guitars and overdriven amps.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 27, 2021
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 form of the song is simple and its sound overdriven: a fuzzed-out electric piano bangs out quarter-note chords through the whole thing, in sync with the guitars.
From New York Times ● Jun. 3, 2016
Where King Midas is carefully scrubbed of bright tones, Bug's "Sleng Teng" is all overdriven oranges and yellows.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 26, 2015
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
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
Others were designed to destroy the hard disk by directly overdriving the disk or would cause amonitor to self-destruct.
From Terminal Compromise: computer terrorism: when privacy and freedom are the victims: a novel by Winn Schwartau
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
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
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.
