overdrive

1. (countable, dated, uncountable)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.

   Near-synonym: top gear

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

   Schnellgang, Overdrive

2. (figuratively, uncountable)A state of heightened activity.

   overdrive pacing

   The campaign has been in overdrive since the recent announcement.

   the state of high or excessive activity or productivity or concentration

3. (countable, euphemistic, slang, uncountable)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).

   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.

4. (countable, uncountable)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.

1. Tom's hyperactive imagination went into overdrive.

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2. The hype machine remains in overdrive.

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3. Tom's incendiary speech kicked the revolution into overdrive.

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4. The revolution kicked into overdrive.

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5. Ziri's mind went into overdrive.

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