Overhead \O`ver*head"\, adv. Aloft; above; in or attached to the ceiling or roof; in the story or upon the floor above; in the zenith. [1913 Webster]
While overhead the moon Sits arbitress. --Milton. [1913 Webster]
Note: Also used adjectively; as, an overhead crane, gear, etc. [1913 Webster]
Overhead engine, a vertical steam engine in which the cylinder stands above the crank.
Overhead work, a general term in manufactories for countershafting and gearing, when overhead. [1913 Webster]
overhead \o"ver*head`\, n.
1. same as overhead expenses. [PJC]
2. A compartment on a train, bus, or airplane used for storage of luggage or accessory equipment; called also overhead compartment. [PJC]
3. (Sports) A stroke with a racket in which the ball is struck with the racket over the head, moving in a downward motion; also called overhead stroke. [PJC] Overhead charges
1: above your head; in the sky; "planes were flying overhead"
2: above the head; over the head; "bring the legs together overhead" adj
1: located or originating from above; "an overhead crossing" [ant: subsurface, surface]
1: the expense of maintaining property (e.g., paying property taxes and utilities and insurance); it does not include depreciation or the cost of financing or income taxes [syn: operating expense, operating cost, overhead, budget items]
2: (computer science) the processing time required by a device prior to the execution of a command [syn: command processing overhead time, command processing overhead, command overhead, overhead]
3: (computer science) the disk space required for information that is not data but is used for location and timing [syn: disk overhead, overhead]
4: a transparency for use with an overhead projector [syn: viewgraph, overhead]
5: (nautical) the top surface of an enclosed space on a ship
6: a hard return hitting the tennis ball above your head [syn: overhead, smash]
76 Moby Thesaurus words for "overhead": above, abovestairs, airward, aloft, aloof, budget, budget items, burden of expenditure, carrying charge, ceiling, charges, cost, cost of living, cost-of-living allowance, cost-of-living index, costs, direct costs, disbursals, distributed costs, eaves, elevated, expenditures, expense, expense account, expenses, general expenses, high, high up, housetop, in the air, in the clouds, indirect costs, labor costs, lantern, liabilities, maintenance, material costs, on high, on stilts, on the peak, on tiptoe, operating costs, operating expense, outlay, over, overhead, penthouse, plafond, prime cost, raised, replacement cost, ridgepole, roof, roof garden, roof-deck, roofage, roofing, roofpole, rooftop, rooftree, shingles, skylight, skyward, slates, straight up, swindle sheet, tiles, tiptoe, to the zenith, top, unit cost, up, upper, upstairs, upward, upwards
1. Resources (in computing usually processing time or storage space) consumed for purposes which are incidental to, but necessary to, the main one. Overheads are usually quantifiable "costs" of some kind.
Examples: The overheads in running a business include the cost of heating the building. Keeping a program running all the time eliminates the overhead of loading and initialising it for each transaction. Turning a subroutine into inline code eliminates the call and return time overhead for each execution but introduces space overheads.
3. Overhead transparencies or "slides" (usually 8-1/2" x 11") that are projected to an audience via an overhead (flatbed) projector.
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