English

Noun

overdrive ‎(usually uncountable, plural overdrives)

1. (dated) A gear, on an automobile, higher than the normal top gear.
   • 2016 October 14, Popular Mechanics‎, volume 156, page 201:

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

2. A state of heightened activity.
   • 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

Translations

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.

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

over- +‎ drive; from German übertreiben

Verb

overdrive ‎(imperative overdriv, present tense overdriver, simple past overdrev or overdreiv, past participle overdrevet, present participle overdrivende)

1. to exaggerate (overstate, to describe more than is fact)

Related terms

• overdreven

Derived terms

• overdrivelse

References

• “overdrive” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Adjective

overdrive

1. neuter of overdriven