From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishoverheato‧ver‧heat /ˌəʊvəˈhiːt $ ˌoʊvər-/ verb [intransitive, transitive] 1 HOTto become too hot, or to make something too hot I think the engine’s overheating again. Try not to overheat the sauce.2 if a country’s economy overheats, or if something overheats it, it grows too fast and this leads to increases in prices, salaries, interest rates etc→ See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
overheat• The biggest danger for any stranded cetacean is overheating.• The entire operation will use remote devices in the boron-rich water that keeps the reactor fuel from overheating.• The oven had an open front to avoid overheating.• If the fan doesn't work, the engine could overheat.• Sea breezes kept us from overheating and at the end of the day we chugged into Mombassa harbour.• Stock and bond investors have been wary for months that the economy would overheat and prompt the Fed to tighten.• The engine started overheating and steam poured out of the front of the car.• The cooling system broke down, the nuclear reactor overheated, and the plant had to be evacuated.• Critics say the economy overheated because of the recent tax cuts.• If the wiring were overheating, it could have caused oxygen-generating canisters in the cargo hold to explode, he said.• Last year, a limited number of PowerBooks were recalled because of an overheating problem.• Again, it's vital not to overheat the liquid because it will curdle as well as lose its taste.From Longman Business Dictionaryoverheato‧ver‧heat /ˌəʊvəˈhiːtˌoʊvər-/ verb [intransitive, transitive]ECONOMICS if an economy overheats, demand rises too fast, causing prices and imports to rise, a situation that governments may try to correct by raising taxes and interest ratesLifting economies out of recession is easy compared with deciding when to re-apply the brakes so the economy does not overheat later.Germany overheated its economy as it poured money into rebuilding the East. —overheating noun [uncountable]Economic growth is modest, with little fear of overheating.→ See Verb table 