/dɹəʊv/, /dɹoʊv/
OriginFrom Middle English drove, drof, draf, from Old English drāf (“action of driving; a driving out, expulsion; drove, herd, band; company, band; road along which cattle are driven”), from Proto-Germanic *draibō (“a drive, push, movement, drove”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰreybʰ- (“to drive, push”). Cognate with Scots drave, dreef (“drove, crowd”), Dutch dreef (“a walkway, wide road with trees, drove”), Middle High German treip (“a drove”), Swedish drev (“a drive, drove”), Icelandic dreif (“a scattering, distribution”). More at drive.
- A cattle drive or the herd being driven by it; thus, a number of cattle driven to market or new pastures.
- broadly, figuratively, plural-normallyA large number of people on the move.
- collectiveA group of hares.
- A road or track along which cattle are habitually, used to be or could be driven; a droveway.
- A narrow drain or channel used in the irrigation of land.
- A broad chisel used to bring stone to a nearly smooth surface.
- The grooved surface of stone finished by the drove chisel.
- form-of, pastsimple past of drive
“I had occasion […] to make a somewhat long business trip to Chicago, and on my return […] I found Farrar awaiting me in the railway station. He smiled his wonted fraction by way of greeting, […], and ”
“Iron and coal were the magnets that drew railways to this land of lovely valleys and silent mountains—for such it was a century-and-a-half ago, before man blackened the valleys with the smoke of his f”
- dialectal, form-of, participle, pastpast participle of drive
“Not the Horn-Plague, but something worse, Had drove the frighted Cucks from thence.”
“Then, being on his knees between my thighs, he drew up his ſhirt, and bared all his hairy thighs, and ſtiff ſtaring truncheon, red-topt, and rooted into a thicket of curls, which cover’d his belly to ” — Fanny Hill
“We are appealing to any individuals who "have" drove that road who may well have [...]”
- To herd cattle; particularly over a long distance.
“He's droving now with Conroy's sheep along the Castlereagh.”
- transitiveTo finish (stone) with a drove chisel.
Formsdroves(plural) · droves(present, singular, third-person) · droving(participle, present) · droved(participle, past) · droved(past)