How to use overdrive in a sentence

11 example sentences · verb, noun

Overdrive means to drive too hard, or far, or beyond strength. Example: “In the 1970s, many transmission designs were revised to add an overdrive gear.”

Examples of overdrive by meaning

nounA gear, on an automobile, higher than the traditional top gear, mainly to allow better fuel economy at highway speeds....

In the 1970s, many transmission designs were revised to add an overdrive gear.
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

nounA state of heightened activity.

The campaign has been in overdrive since the recent announcement.
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

nounFreewheeling (driving a vehicle with the transmission in neutral) on downhill stretches to achieve higher fuel economy...

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.

More sentences with overdrive

He shifted his car out of gear, at the top of the hill, and coasted down in Mexican overdrive.From the entry Mexican overdrive
May be it's not as heavy as he thought, or may be he's on adrenaline overdrive.1992, Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash, page 361. From the entry adrenaline
Everything about this mess had her lizard-brain in overdrive.2017 November, N. K. Jemisin, Mac Walters, chapter 8, in Mass Effect Andromeda: Initiation, 1st edition (Science Fiction), Titan Books…. From the entry lizard brain
The giant storm — dubbed a “Snowicane” — was coming up the East Coast like a steamroller in overdrive.1993, American Philatelic Association, The American philatelist. From the entry snowicane
I think both of our hearts must have gone into overdrive when we heard the metallic scree of a door being rolled open and the men's voices that accompanied it.2008 September 3, Brad Fear, “The ‘Captives’ Entry”, in A Macabre Myth of a Moth-man, Bloomington, Ind.: AuthorHouse, →ISBN, page 130. From the entry scree

Meaning of overdrive

verb To drive too hard, or far, or beyond strength.
noun 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.
noun A state of heightened activity.

Full definition of overdrive

Questions about overdrive in a sentence

How do you use overdrive in a sentence?: Overdrive is used as a verb and noun. For example: “In the 1970s, many transmission designs were revised to add an overdrive gear.”
What is a short sentence with overdrive?: “Everything about this mess had her lizard-brain in overdrive.”
What does overdrive mean?: Overdrive means to drive too hard, or far, or beyond strength.

Adapted from Wiktionary: overdrive (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this page: “How to use overdrive in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/overdrive. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.