/dɹaɪv/, [d̠ɹ̠ ̝(ʷ)aɪv], [d͡ʒɹaɪv]
OriginFrom Middle English driven, from Old English drīfan (“to drive, force, move”), from Proto-West Germanic *drīban, from Proto-Germanic *drībaną (“to drive”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰreybʰ- (“to drive, push”).
Cognates
Cognate with Scots drive (“to drive”), Yola dhreeve, dhrive, dreeve, drieve, drive (“to drive”), North Frisian driiv, driiw, driwe (“to drive”), West Frisian driuwe (“to drive; to float”), Alemannic German triibe (“to drive”), Dutch drijven (“to drive, push”), German treiben (“to drive, push, propel”), Low German drieven (“to drive, drift, push”), Luxembourgish dreiwen (“to drive, propel”), Yiddish טרײַבן (traybn, “to drive”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål drive (“to drive, propel”), Icelandic drífa (“to drive”), Norwegian Nynorsk driva, drive (“to drive, move; to propel; to run”), Swedish driva (“to drive, compel; to drift; to run”), Gothic 𐌳𐍂𐌴𐌹𐌱𐌰𐌽 (dreiban, “to drive”).
- ergative, transitiveTo operate (a wheeled motorized vehicle).
“The bridges weren't strong enough to drive (campers) over.”
“This SUV drives insanely smoothly—it's like it knows what I want before I do.”
- intransitiveTo travel by operating a wheeled motorized vehicle.
“I drive to work every day.”
- transitiveTo convey (a person, etc.) in a wheeled motorized vehicle.
“My cousin drove me to the airport.”
- slang, transitiveTo operate (an aircraft); to pilot.
- intransitive, transitiveTo direct a vehicle powered by a horse, ox or similar animal.
“There is a litter ready; lay him in’t
And drive towards Dover, friend, where thou shalt meet
Both welcome and protection.”
“We drove back to the office with some concern on my part at the prospect of so large a case. Sunning himself on the board steps, I saw for the first time Mr. Farquhar Fenelon Cooke. He was dressed out”
- transitive(especially of animals) To impel or urge onward by force; to push forward; to compel to move on.
“to drive twenty thousand head of cattle from Texas to the Kansas railheads; to drive sheep out of a field”
- transitive(especially animals) To cause to flee out of.
“The hunting dog drove the birds out of the tall grass.”
“We'll drive the enemy from these lands once and for all.”
- transitiveTo provide an impetus for motion or other physical change, to move an object by means of the provision of force thereto.
“You drive nails into wood with any hammer; it's not as strenuous as driving a tunnel through the rock.”
“If you drive yourself so much, you'll end up having a breakdown.”
- transitiveTo cause (a mechanism) to operate.
“The pistons drive the crankshaft.”
- intransitiveTo hit the ball with a drive.
- transitiveTo separate the lighter (feathers or down) from the heavier, by exposing them to a current of air.
- transitiveTo displace either physically or non-physically, through the application of force.
“One fire drives out one fire; one nail, one nail;
Rights by rights falter, strengths by strengths do fail.”
- transitiveTo provide an impetus for a change in one's situation or state of mind.
“My husband's constant harping about the condition of the house threatens to drive me to distraction.”
- transitiveTo motivate; to provide an incentive for.
“What drives a person to run a marathon?”
- transitiveTo compel, exert pressure, coerce (to do something).
“Their debts finally drove them to sell the business.”
“He driuen to dismount, threatned, if I did not the like, to doo as much for my horse, as Fortune had done for his.” — The New Arcadia
“But darkness and the gloomy shade of death
Environ you, till mischief and despair
Drive you to break your necks or hang yourselves!”
- transitiveTo cause to become.
“This constant complaining is going to drive me insane.”
“You are driving me crazy!”
“1855, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Maud, XXV, 1. in Maud, and Other Poems, London: Edward Moxon, p. 90,
And then to hear a dead man chatter
Is enough to drive one mad.”
- transitiveTo motivate through the application or demonstration of force; to impel or urge onward in such a way.
“Frothing at the mouth and threatening expulsion, Coach relentlessly drove the team to more laps of the pitch.”
“[…] Demosthenes desired them first to put in at Pylos and not to proceed on their voyage until they had done what he wanted. They objected, but it so happened that a storm came on and drove them into ”
- transitiveTo urge, press, or bring to a point or state.
“The negotiations were driven to completion minutes before the final deadline.”
“And now we're waiting for the very same people to establish GBR, drive through urgently needed fares reform, and come up with imaginative and effective train operating contracts...”
- intransitiveTo move forcefully.
“[…] Unequal match’d,
Pyrrhus at Priam drives, in rage strikes wide;”
“Thus while the Pious Prince his Fate bewails,
Fierce Boreas drove against his flying Sails.
And rent the Sheets […]”
“Time driveth onward fast,
And in a little while our lips are dumb.”
- intransitiveTo be moved or propelled forcefully (especially of a ship).
“[…] as a duck for life that dives,
So up and down the poor ship drives:”
“[…] the Captain […] order’d the Cable to be cut, and let the Ship drive nearer the Land, where she soon beat to pieces:”
- transitiveTo carry or to keep in motion; to conduct; to prosecute.
“You know the Trade of Life can’t be driven without Partners; there is a reciprocal Dependance between the Greatest and the Least.”
- transitiveTo clear, by forcing away what is contained.
“We come not with design of wastful Prey,
To drive the Country, force the Swains away:”
- To dig horizontally; to cut a horizontal gallery or tunnel.
“1852-1866, Charles Tomlinson, Cyclopaedia of Useful Arts and Manufactures
If the miners find no ore, they drive or cut a gallery from the pit a short distance at right angles to the direction of the l”
- To put together a drive (n.): to string together offensive plays and advance the ball down the field.
- obsoleteTo distrain for rent.
- To be the dominant party in a sex act.
- countable, uncountablePlanned, usually long-lasting, effort to achieve something; ability coupled with ambition, determination, and motivation.
“Crassus had wealth and wit, but Pompey had drive and Caesar as much again.”
“As we contemplate the half-finished arterial roads and electrification plans of our own age, and the town-planning schemes that gather dust in the public libraries, we can admire the drive and action ”
“I confess that the sight of my minute man ahead, getting closer and closer, gives me a little more drive even when I think I am going as fast as I can.”
- countable, uncountableViolent or rapid motion; a rushing onward or away; (especially) a forced or hurried dispatch of business.
“The Murdstonian drive in business.”
- countable, uncountableAn act of driving game animals forward, to be captured or hunted.
“Are you all ready?’ he cried, and set off towards the dead ash where the drive would begin.”
- countable, uncountableAn act of driving livestock animals forward, to transport a herd.
- countable, uncountableA sustained advance in the face of the enemy to take an objective.
“Napoleon's drive on Moscow was as determined as it was disastrous.”
“On the other hand, in Eritrea (once our Forces had recaptured Kassala on January 19) the drive was generally eastward towards the capital, Asmara, and the Red Sea port of Massaua.”
- countable, uncountableA mechanism used to power or give motion to a vehicle or other machine or machine part.
“a typical steam drive”
“a nuclear drive”
“chain drive”
- countable, uncountableA trip made in a vehicle (now generally in a motor vehicle).
“It was a long drive.”
“We merely waited to rouse good Mrs. Vesey from the place which she still occupied at the deserted luncheon-table, before we entered the open carriage for our promised drive.”
- countable, uncountableA driveway.
“The mansion had a long, tree-lined drive.”
“We expressed our readiness, and in ten minutes were in the station wagon, rolling rapidly down the long drive, for it was then after nine. We passed on the way the van of the guests from Asquith.”
“Halfway from Hellingly Station, the railway enters the well-kept hospital grounds, and runs parallel with a tree-lined drive about half a mile long.”
- countable, uncountableA type of public roadway.
“Beverly Hills’ most famous street is Rodeo Drive.”
- countable, uncountableThe gear into which one usually shifts an automatic transmission when one is driving a car or truck. (Denoted with symbol D on a shifter's labeling.)
“Normally you should be in drive, although you can select a lower gear such as 2 or 1 for certain conditions, such as prolonged downhill stretches.”
- countable, dated, uncountableA place suitable or agreeable for driving; a road prepared for driving.
- countable, uncountableDesire or interest.
“1995 March 2, John Carman, "Believe It, You Saw It in Sweeps", SFGate http://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/Believe-It-You-Saw-It-In-Sweeps-3043091.php
On the latter show, former Playboy Playmat”
- countable, uncountableAn apparatus for reading and writing data to or from a mass storage device such as a disk.
- countable, uncountableA mass storage device in which the mechanism for reading and writing data is integrated with the mechanism for storing data.
- countable, uncountableA stroke made with a driver.
- countable, uncountableA ball struck in a flat trajectory.
- countable, uncountableA type of shot played by swinging the bat in a vertical arc, through the line of the ball, and hitting it along the ground, normally between cover and midwicket.
- countable, uncountableA straight level shot or pass.
“And after Rodallega missed two early opportunities, the first a header, the second a low drive easily held by Lukasz Fabianski, it was N'Zogbia who created the opening goal.”
- countable, uncountableAn offensive possession, generally one consisting of several plays and/ or first downs, often leading to a scoring opportunity.
- countable, uncountableA charity event such as a fundraiser, bake sale, or toy drive.
“a whist drive”
“a beetle drive”
- countable, uncountableA campaign aimed at selling more of a certain product or promoting a public service.
- countable, uncountableAn impression or matrix formed by a punch drift.
- countable, uncountableA collection of objects that are driven; a mass of logs to be floated down a river.
- UK, countable, slang, uncountableFriendly term of address for a bus driver.
“Yeah, thanks, drive!
You boyz all goin' shoppin'?
We are, drive, says Chip.”
“The coaches dropped us where we had begun, outside the chapel; each child in turn piping up, 'Thank you, drive!' as we disembarked.”
“Soon every stop on every route was once again punctuated by rounds of 'Cheers drive! Cheers drive! Cheers drive!' And with this little nicety reinstated, all was relatively well in Bristol town.”
Formsdrives(present, singular, third-person) · driving(participle, present) · drove(past) · drave(archaic, past) · driv(dialectal, past) · driven(participle, past) · druv(dialectal, participle, past) · drove(dialectal, participle, past) · drive(infinitive) · drive(first-person, present, singular) · drove(first-person, past, singular) · driv(dialectal, first-person, past, singular) · drave(archaic, first-person, past, singular) · drive(present, second-person, singular) · drivest(archaic, present, second-person, singular) · drove(past, second-person, singular) · driv(dialectal, past, second-person, singular) · drovest(archaic, past, second-person, singular) · drave(archaic, past, second-person, singular) · dravest(archaic, past, second-person, singular)