hyperdrive

[ hahy-per-drahyv ]

noun

1. (in science fiction) a mode or function of a spaceship’s engine that enables it to travel at speeds faster than light, typically by moving through hyperspace:

   Sabotage caused the robot to accelerate the spacecraft into hyperdrive.

   In the movie, they had to activate the hyperdrive to keep their spaceship from falling into the sun.

2. overdrive:

   Monsoon is the season when all of India goes into sowing-planting-growing hyperdrive.

Word History and Origins

Origin of hyperdrive¹

First recorded in 1950–55; hyper- ( def ) + drive ( def ), perhaps based on hyperspace ( def ) and overdrive ( def )

Example Sentences

In a world on permanent hyperdrive, the pressure to succeed in your career will come from everywhere.

From The Daily Beast

There aren't a dozen and a half planets in the Old Federation that still have hyperdrive, and they're all civilized.

From Project Gutenberg

Each of them had its own hyperdrive engines, and could travel as far and as fast as the ship herself.

From Project Gutenberg

Gadolinium was essential to hyperdrive engines; the engines of a ship the size of the Nemesis required fifty pounds of it.

From Project Gutenberg

And the Cavour Hyperdrive was the merest will-o'-the-wisp, dancing wildly before him in his dreams.

From Project Gutenberg

Suddenly he saw the reason for Captain Donnell's abrupt growth of interest in the development of a hyperdrive.

From Project Gutenberg