overdrive
/ˌəʊvə(ɹ)ˈdɹaɪv/
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.18 in modern English
Meaning
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.
Countable; Dated; Uncountable
noun
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).
Countable; Slang; Uncountable
noun
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.
Countable; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "Near-synonym: top gear"
- "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."
- "overdrive pacing"
- "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"
Etymology
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: overdriven, oferdrīfan