overdrive

present singular third person overdrives · participle present overdriving · past overdrove · participle past overdriven

1. transitiveTo drive too hard, or far, or beyond strength.

plural overdrives

1. countabledateduncountableautomotiveA 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

   2 more examples

   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

   Synonyms: OD, O/D, O.D., top gear

2. figurativelyuncountableA state of heightened activity.

   overdrive pacing

   3 more examples

   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 birth

   2000, Salman Rushdie, The ground beneath her feet, page 78

   So, Mr. 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: top gear, full throttle · Antonyms: low gear

3. countableeuphemisticslanguncountableFreewheeling (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.

   Synonyms: see at angel gear

4. countableuncountableengineeringA 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.