Overdrive definitions

Webster's 1828 Dictionary

OVERDRI'VE, v.t. To drive too hard, or beyond strength.
Genesis 33.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: the state of high or excessive activity or productivity or concentration; "Troops are ready to go into overdrive as soon as the signal is given"; "Melissa's brain was in overdrive"
2: a high gear used at high speeds to maintain the driving speed with less output power v
1: drive or work too hard; "The teacher is overworking his students"; "Overdriving people often suffer stress"
2: make use of too often or too extensively [syn: overuse, overdrive]

Merriam Webster's

noun Date: 1926 1. an automotive transmission gear that transmits to the drive shaft a speed greater than engine speed 2. a state of heightened activity <going into rhetorical overdrive>

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. 1 a a mechanism in a motor vehicle providing a gear ratio higher than that of the usual gear. b an additional speed-increasing gear. 2 (usu. prec. by in, into) a state of high or excessive activity.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(overdrives) 1. The overdrive in a vehicle is a very high gear that is used when you are driving at high speeds. N-COUNT: usu sing, oft N n 2. If you go into overdrive, you begin to work very hard or perform a particular activity in a very intense way. In the courtroom everybody went into overdrive, assuming that there might well be a verdict soon. PHRASE: PHR after v

Moby Thesaurus

Hydromatic, automatic transmission, burden, busy, carry too far, cogwheel, differential, differential gear, drive, exaggerate, exhaust, fag, freewheel, gear, gear train, gearbox, gearing, gearshift, gearwheel, go overboard, go to extremes, go too far, high, intermediate, keep busy, know no bounds, low, neutral, oppress, overact, overcarry, overdevelop, overdo, overelaborate, overemphasize, overexercise, overexert, overexpend, overindulge, overlabor, overplay, overreact, overspend, overstrain, overstress, overstudy, overtask, overtax, overtrain, overuse, overwork, pass all bounds, protest too much, rack, reverse, standard transmission, stick shift, sweat, synchromesh, task, tax, transmission, work