overheat

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   to become hotter than is safe, necessary, or desirable

   The engine may overheat if the coolant level falls too low.

2. 2
   verb

   to make a person, place, or object excessively hot

   Direct sunlight can overheat the room by midafternoon.

3. 3
   verb

   of an economy or market, to grow so quickly that inflation and other imbalances develop

   Low interest rates may cause the housing market to overheat.

From Middle English overheten, a transparent compound of over- ("excessively") + heat. The transitive sense "make too hot" is medieval; the intransitive engine sense is recorded from the early twentieth century, and the economic metaphor followed from the same idea of dangerous excess.

Topics