overhaul

Noun

overhaul (plural overhauls)

1. A major repair, renovation, or revision.
   • The engine required a complete overhaul to run properly.
   • One aim of the move [from Nine Elms] had been to speed up the overhaul of the company's locomotive stock and to reduce costs with more efficient workshop facilities, in what Dugald Drummond claimed to be "the most complete and up-to-date works owned by any railway company".1961 March, C.P. Boocock, “The organisation of Eastleigh Locomotive Works”, in Trains Illustrated, page 159
2. The process after the fire appears extinguished in which the firefighters search the structure for signs of hot spots that may cause the structure to reignite.

Verb

IPA/ˌəʊvəˈhɔːl/

overhaul (third-person singular simple present overhauls, present participle overhauling, simple past and past participle overhauled)

1. To modernize, repair, renovate, or revise completely.
   • While the engines are dealt with in the diesel shop, their parent locomotives are overhauled in the erecting shop.1961 March, C. P. Boocock, “The organisation of Eastleigh Locomotive Works”, in Trains Illustrated, page 159
   • In his senior year, he had run across an old '66 Chevy Super Sport headed for the junkyard, bought it for a song, and overhauled it with his dad's help, turning it into the big red muscle car it was back in its day.2011, Kat Martin, A Song for My Mother^([200]), Vanguard Press, →ISBN
2. To pass, overtake, or travel past.
   • An amusing incident on the first of these journeys was the checking by signal of the flyer about 3 miles out of Paris, with the result that it was overhauled by the 6.25 p.m. semi-fast from Paris to Montargis, to the unconcealed delight of passengers in the latter.1952 December, 'Mercury', “Modern French Locomotive Performance”, in Railway Magazine, pages 808-809
   • In theory there was a runner ahead of him who would pause to sleep. Who would falter and fall. Who would despair at the size of the desert. Because Logan did none of these he would overhaul the runner and kill him.1967, William F. Nolan, George Clayton Johnson, Logan's Run, May 1976 Bantam edition, →ISBN, page 109
3. To keep (running rigging) clear, and see that no hitch occurs.
4. (transitive) To search (a ship) for contraband goods.
5. To carry out an overhaul.