overdrive

Verb

overdrive (third-person singular simple present overdrives, present participle overdriving, simple past overdrove, past participle overdriven)

1. (transitive) To drive too hard, or far, or beyond strength.

Noun

overdrive (countable and uncountable, plural overdrives)

2. (dated, automotive) A gear, on an automobile, higher than the traditionally normal 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 are often not called by this name anymore.

   Synonyms: (initialisms) OD, O/D, O.D.

   Coordinate terms: fourth gear, fifth gear

   Near-synonym: top gear

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

   • 1981 October, Popular Mechanics, volume 156, number 4, page 201:

     Cruising in overdrive at legal highway speed keeps rpm right at 1800, depending on rear-axle ratio.

4. (uncountable, figurative) A state of heightened activity.

   Synonyms: top gear; full throttle

   Antonym: low gear

   overdrive pacing

   The campaign has been in overdrive since the recent announcement.

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

     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

   • 2022 July 26, Mike Isaac, “‘Operating With Increased Intensity’: Zuckerberg Leads Meta Into Next Phase”, in The New York Times‎, →ISSN:

     So, Mr. Zuckerberg has kicked his company into overdrive with a strong message: It’s time to do more with less.

6. (euphemistic, slang) 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).

   Synonym: see at angel gear

   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.

7. (engineering, mechanical) 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.

See also

Derived terms

• overdrivelse

Related terms

• overdreven