overdrive
/ˌəʊvə(ɹ)ˈdɹaɪv/
overdrive verb: to drive too hard, or far, or beyond strength.
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Verb
overdrive (third-person singular simple present overdrives, present participle overdriving, simple past overdrove, past participle overdriven)
- To drive too hard, or far, or beyond strength.
Noun
IPA/ˈəʊvə(ɹ)ˌdɹaɪv/
overdrive (countable and uncountable, plural overdrives)
- 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.
- Near-synonym: top gear
- In the 1970s, many transmission designs were revised to add an overdrive gear.
- A state of heightened activity.
- overdrive pacing
- The campaign has been in overdrive since the recent announcement.
- Synonyms:
- top gear, full throttle
- Antonyms:
- low gear
- 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).
- Of course overdrive is forbidden for dump trucks in the quarry because it is unsafe, but unscrupulous workers were found to be using it because of a perverse incentive involving tonnage piece rates.
- 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.
overdrive meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Bengali
overdrive in Hindi
- ओवरड्राइव करना, ओवरड्राइव करें
overdrive in Tamil
- மேற்செலுத்தல்
overdrive in Marathi
- ओव्हरड्राईव्ह करण्यासाठी, ओव्हरड्राइव्ह करण्यासाठी, ओव्हरड्राईव्ह करणे
overdrive in Bengali
- ওভারড্রাইভ করা, ওভারড্রাইভ করতে
More languagesFewer languages
- overdrive in Punjabi
- ਓਵਰਡ੍ਰਾਈਵ ਕਰਨ ਲਈ, ਓਵਰਡਰਾਈਵ ਕਰਨ ਲਈ, ਓਵਰਡ੍ਰਾਈਵ ਕਰਨਾ
- overdrive in Gujarati
- ઓવરડ્રાઈવ કરવા માટે, ઓવરડ્રાઇવ કરવા માટે, ઓવરડ્રાઈવ કરો
- overdrive in Odia
- ଓଭରଡ୍ରାଇଭ୍ କରିବା
- overdrive in Nepali
- ओभरड्राइभ गर्न, ओभरड्राइभ गर्ने
Examples of overdrive in a sentence
- Cruising in overdrive at legal highway speed keeps rpm right at 1800, depending on rear-axle ratio.1981 October, Popular Mechanics, volume 156, number 4, page 201:
- It is true, though it's got nothing to do with me, that the building boom that created the Bombay of my childhood went into overdrive in the years before my birth2000, Salman Rushdie, The ground beneath her feet, page 78:
- Zuckerberg has kicked his company into overdrive with a strong message: It’s time to do more with less.2022 July 26, Mike Isaac, “‘Operating With Increased Intensity’: Zuckerberg Leads Meta Into Next Phase”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
Synonyms of overdrive
Antonyms
Forms of overdrive
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | overdrives |
| present participle | overdriving |
| past | overdrove |
| past participle | overdriven |
| Noun | |
| plural | overdrives |
Origin of overdrive
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”).
From over- + drive, originally referring to gear ratios over 1:1.
Words formed from overdrive
Questions about overdrive
- What does overdrive mean?
- Overdrive means to drive too hard, or far, or beyond strength.
- What is overdrive in Hindi?
- Overdrive in Hindi is ओवरड्राइव करना, ओवरड्राइव करें. See Overdrive meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use overdrive in a sentence?
- Cruising in overdrive at legal highway speed keeps rpm right at 1800, depending on rear-axle ratio.
- What part of speech is overdrive?
- Overdrive can be a verb or a noun.
- How do you pronounce overdrive?
- Overdrive is pronounced /ˌəʊvə(ɹ)ˈdɹaɪv/.
- What is the past tense of overdrive?
- The past tense of overdrive is overdrove.
Words near overdrive in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: overdrive (page history and authors); overdrive (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); overdrive (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); overdrive (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); overdrive (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); overdrive (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); overdrive (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); overdrive (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); overdrive (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-overdrive (verb).wav.
Cite this entry: “overdrive.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/overdrive. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.