overdrift

overdrift adjective: having gearing that turns the millstone by means of a pole that rises above it.

Adjective

overdrift (not comparable)

Having gearing that turns the millstone by means of a pole that rises above it.
- The overdrift method in smock mills may be seen at Punnetts Town, and the underdrift at Shipley.1979, Martin Brunnarius, The windmills of Sussex, page 11
- In an overdrift mill this gear is mounted on the quant, in an underdrift mill on the stone spindle.1996, Richard Leslie Hills, Power from Wind: A History of Windmill Technology, →ISBN, page 298

overdrift (third-person singular simple present overdrifts, present participle overdrifting, simple past and past participle overdrifted)

To drift on top of.
- Green be those downs and dells above the sea, Smooth-green for ever, by the plough unhurt, Nor overdrifted by their neighbouring sands, Where first I saw you ;1877, William Allingham, Songs, Ballads, and Stories
- Overdrifting of snow forms huge drifts or overdrifts, the shearing of which usually starts an avalanche.2003, Acta Universitatis Carolinae: Geographica - Volume 35, page 249
To drift too far.
- Accordingly, there is the tendency of the power stroke to overdrift the cessation of the travel signal.1954, Instruments and Control Systems - Volume 27, page 1465

overdrift (countable and uncountable, plural overdrifts)

An act of overdrifting.
- Four horses with a drag accomplished in one day the moving of 75 feet of this extreme in-shore end of the stone-work, and its distribution in the place mentioned proving sufficient to raise the low place to a height to insure the stoppage of any further sand overdrift for the present.1873, United States. Army. Corps of Engineers, Report of the Chief of Engineers, page 1032
- These values are based on the premise that 25 percent of the insecticide deposits in the first swath. Application to successive swaths results in overdrift, which increases the deposit by 10 to 20 percent in each swath.1950, United States. Bureau of Entomology and Plant Quarantine, Entomological Technique - Issues 271-314, page 6
Material that has drifted over something.
- Soul of mine Drink in their matchless aspect as they lift Their circling range, obscured by overdrift Of cloud, or stand out sharply, line on line Of august shapes, upon whose foreheads shine The dawn's bright earnest and the late last Gift Of day, the brief empurpled gleams that shift Through...1896, Julia Boynton Green, “At Redlands”, in The Land of Sunshine, volumes 5-6, page 195
- Overdrifting of snow forms huge drifts or overdrifts, the shearing of which usually starts an avalanche.2003, Acta Universitatis Carolinae: Geographica - Volume 35, page 249

It seemed as if the sand had not had time to overdrift the detritus of one campaign before a new deposit of ruin had been left behind.2015, Frederick Grice, Gillian Clarke, War's Nomads:
For accurate stopping, the drive must incorporate means for minimizing inertia overdrift.1954, Instruments and Control Systems - Volume 27, page 1466:

Verb
third-person singular present	overdrifts
present participle	overdrifting
past participle	overdrifted
past	overdrifted
Noun
plural	overdrifts

From over- + drift.

What does overdrift mean?: Overdrift means having gearing that turns the millstone by means of a pole that rises above it.
How do you use overdrift in a sentence?: It seemed as if the sand had not had time to overdrift the detritus of one campaign before a new deposit of ruin had been left behind.
What part of speech is overdrift?: Overdrift can be an adjective, a verb or a noun.

Adapted from Wiktionary: overdrift (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this entry: “overdrift.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/overdrift. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.