Definify.com

Webster 1913 Edition

Drive

Drive

(drīv)
,
Verb.
T.
[
imp.
Drove
(drōv)
, formerly
Drave
(drāv);
p. p.
Driven
(drĭv’n)
;
p. pr. & vb. n.
Driving
.]
[AS.
drīfan
; akin to OS.
drīban
, D.
drijven
, OHG.
trīban
, G.
treiben
, Icel.
drīfa
, Goth.
dreiban
. Cf.
Drift
,
Drove
.]
1.
To impel or urge onward by force in a direction away from one, or along before one; to push forward; to compel to move on; to communicate motion to;
as, to
drive
cattle; to
drive
a nail; smoke
drives
persons from a room.
A storm came on and
drove
them into Pylos.
Jowett (Thucyd. ).
Shield pressed on shield, and man
drove
man along.
Pope.
Go
drive
the deer and drag the finny prey.
Pope.
2.
To urge on and direct the motions of, as the beasts which draw a vehicle, or the vehicle borne by them; hence, also, to take in a carriage; to convey in a vehicle drawn by beasts;
as, to
drive
a pair of horses or a stage; to
drive
a person to his own door.
How . . . proud he was to
drive
such a brother!
Thackeray.
3.
To urge, impel, or hurry forward; to force; to constrain; to urge, press, or bring to a point or state;
as, to
drive
a person by necessity, by persuasion, by force of circumstances, by argument, and the like
.
“ Enough to drive one mad.”
Tennyson.
He,
driven
to dismount, threatened, if I did not do the like, to do as much for my horse as fortune had done for his.
Sir P. Sidney.
4.
To carry or; to keep in motion; to conduct; to prosecute.
[Now used only colloquially.]
Bacon.
The trade of life can not be
driven
without partners.
Collier.
5.
To clear, by forcing away what is contained.
To
drive
the country, force the swains away.
Dryden.
6.
(Mining)
To dig Horizontally; to cut a horizontal gallery or tunnel.
Tomlinson.
7.
To pass away; – said of time.
[Obs.]
Chaucer.
☞ Drive, in all its senses, implies forcible or violent action. It is the reverse of to lead. To drive a body is to move it by applying a force behind; to lead is to cause to move by applying the force before, or in front. It takes a variety of meanings, according to the objects by which it is followed; as, to drive an engine, to direct and regulate its motions; to drive logs, to keep them in the current of a river and direct them in their course; to drive feathers or down, to place them in a machine, which, by a current of air, drives off the lightest to one end, and collects them by themselves. “My thrice-driven bed of down.”
Shak.

Drive

,
Verb.
I.
1.
To rush and press with violence; to move furiously.
Fierce Boreas
drove
against his flying sails.
Dryden.
Under cover of the night and a
driving
tempest.
Prescott.
Time
driveth
onward fast,
And in a little while our lips are dumb.
Tennyson.
2.
To be forced along; to be impelled; to be moved by any physical force or agent; to be driven.
The hull
drives
on, though mast and sail be torn.
Byron.
The chaise
drives
to Mr. Draper’s chambers.
Thackeray.
3.
To go by carriage; to pass in a carriage; to proceed by directing or urging on a vehicle or the animals that draw it;
as, the coachman
drove
to my door
.
4.
To press forward; to aim, or tend, to a point; to make an effort; to strive; – usually with at.
Let them therefore declare what carnal or secular interest he
drove
at.
South.
5.
To distrain for rent.
[Obs.]
To let drive
,
to aim a blow; to strike with force; to attack.
“Four rogues in buckram let drive at me.”
Shak.

Drive

(drīv)
,
p.
p.
Driven.
[Obs.]
Chaucer.

Drive

(drīv)
,
Noun.
1.
The act of driving; a trip or an excursion in a carriage, as for exercise or pleasure; – distinguished from a ride taken on horseback.
2.
A place suitable or agreeable for driving; a road prepared for driving.
3.
Violent or rapid motion; a rushing onward or away; esp., a forced or hurried dispatch of business.
The Murdstonian
drive
in business.
M. Arnold.
4.
In type founding and forging, an impression or matrix, formed by a punch drift.
Syn. – See
Ride
.

Webster 1828 Edition

Drive

DRIVE

,
Verb.
T.
pret. Drove, [formerly drave; pp. Driven, G.]
1.
To impel or urge forward by force; to force; to move by physical force. We drive a nail into wood with a hammer; the wind or a current drive a ship on the ocean.
2.
To compel or urge forward by other means than absolute physical force, or by means that compel the will; as, to drive cattle to market. A smoke drives company from the room. A man may be drive by the necessities of the times, to abandon his country.
Drive thy business; let not thy business drive thee.
3.
To chase; to hunt.
To drive the deer with hound and horn.
4.
To impel a team of horses or oxen to move forward, and to direct their course; hence, to guide or regulate the course of the carriage drawn by them. We say, to drive a team, or to drive a carriage drawn by a team.
5.
To impel to greater speed.
6.
To clear any place by forcing away what is in it.
To drive the country, force the swains away.
7.
To force; to compel; in a general sense.
8.
To hurry on inconsiderately; often with on. In this sense it is more generally intransitive.
9.
To distress; to straighten; as desperate men far driven.
10.
To impel by influence of passion. Anger and lust often drive men into gross crimes.
11.
To urge; to press; as, to drive an argument.
12.
To impel by moral influence; to compel; as, the reasoning of his opponent drove him to acknowledge his error.
13.
To carry on; to prosecute; to keep in motion; as, to drive a trade; to drive business.
14.
To make light by motion or agitation; as, to drive feathers.
His thrice driven bed of down.
The sense is probably to beat; but I do not recollect this application of the word in America.
To drive away, to force to remove to a distance; to expel; to dispel; to scatter.
To drive off, to compel to remove from a place; to expel; to drive to a distance.
To drive out, to expel.

DRIVE

, v.i.
1.
To be forced along; to be impelled; to be moved by any physical force or agent; as, a ship drives before the wind.
2.
To rush and press with violence; as, a storm drives against the house.
Fierce Boreas drove against his flying sails.
3.
To pass in a carriage; as, he drove to London. This phrase is elliptical. He drove his horses or carriage to London.
4.
To aim at or tend to; to urge towards a point; to make an effort to reach or obtain; as, we know the end the author is driving at.
5.
To aim a blow; to strike at with force.
Four rogues in buckram let drive at me.
Drive, in all its senses, implies forcible or violent action. It is opposed to lead. To drive a body is to move it by applying a force behind; to lead is to cause to move by applying the force before, or forward of the body.

DRIVE

,
Noun.
Passage in a carriage.

Definition 2024

Drive

Drive

See also: drive, drivé, and dříve

German

Noun

Drive m ‎(genitive Drives, plural Drives)

  1. (uncountable) drive (self-motivation)
  2. (golf, countable) drive (stroke made with a driver)
  3. (badminton, tennis, countable) drive (ball struck in a flat trajectory)

Synonyms

drive

drive

See also: Drive, drivé, and dříve

English

Alternative forms

  • (type of public roadway): Dr. (when part of a specific street’s name)

Noun

drive ‎(plural drives)

  1. Motivation to do or achieve something; ability coupled with ambition.
    • 1986, Fred Matheny, Solo Cycling: How to Train and Race Bicycle Time Trials (page 136)
      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.
    Crassus had wealth and wit, but Pompey had drive and Caesar as much again.‎
  2. Violent or rapid motion; a rushing onward or away; especially, a forced or hurried dispatch of business.
  3. An act of driving animals forward, to be captured, hunted etc.
    • 1955, Robin Jenkins, The Cone-Gatherers, Canongate 2012, page 79:
      Are you all ready?’ he cried, and set off towards the dead ash where the drive would begin.
  4. (military) A sustained advance in the face of the enemy to take a strategic objective.
    Napoleon's drive on Moscow was as determined as it was disastrous.‎
  5. A motor that does not take fuel, but instead depends on a mechanism that stores potential energy for subsequent use.
    Some old model trains have clockwork drives.‎
  6. A trip made in a motor vehicle.
    It was a long drive.‎
  7. A driveway.
    The mansion had a long, tree-lined drive.‎
    • 1898, Winston Churchill, chapter 5, in The Celebrity:
      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.
  8. A type of public roadway.
    Beverly Hills’ most famous street is Rodeo Drive.‎
  9. (dated) A place suitable or agreeable for driving; a road prepared for driving.
  10. (psychology) Desire or interest.
  11. (computing) An apparatus for reading and writing data to or from a mass storage device such as a disk, as a floppy drive.
  12. (computing) A mass storage device in which the mechanism for reading and writing data is integrated with the mechanism for storing data, as a hard drive, a flash drive.
  13. (golf) A stroke made with a driver.
  14. (baseball, tennis) A ball struck in a flat trajectory.
  15. (cricket) A 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.
  16. (soccer) A straight level shot or pass.
    • 2010 December 29, Mark Vesty, “Wigan 2-2 Arsenal”, in BBC:
      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.
  17. (American football) An offensive possession, generally one consisting of several plays and/ or first downs, often leading to a scoring opportunity.
  18. A charity event such as a fundraiser, bake sale, or toy drive.
    a whist drive; a beetle drive
  19. (typography) An impression or matrix formed by a punch drift.
  20. A collection of objects that are driven; a mass of logs to be floated down a river.

Usage notes

  • In connection with a mass-storage device, originally the word “drive” referred solely to the reading and writing mechanism. For the storage device itself, the word “disk” was used instead. This remains a valid distinction for components such as floppy drives or CD drives, in which the drive and the disk are separate and independent items. For other devices, such as hard disks and flash drives, the reading, writing and storage components are combined into an integrated whole, and cannot be separated without destroying the device. In these cases, the words “disk” and “drive” are used interchangeably.

Synonyms

Antonyms

Hyponyms

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

drive ‎(third-person singular simple present drives, present participle driving, simple past drove or (archaic) drave, past participle driven or (dialectal) druv)

  1. (transitive) To impel or urge onward by force; to push forward; to compel to move on.
    to drive sheep out of a field
    • Jowett (Thucyd.)
      A storm came on and drove them into Pylos.
  2. (transitive, intransitive) To direct a vehicle powered by a horse, ox or similar animal.
    • 1898, Winston Churchill, chapter 2, in The Celebrity:
      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 in broad gaiters and bright tweeds, like an English tourist, and his face might have belonged to Dagon, idol of the Philistines.
  3. (transitive) To cause animals to flee out of.
    (Can we add an example for this sense?) The beaters drove the brambles, causing a great rush of rabbits and other creatures.‎
  4. (transitive) To move (something) by hitting it with great force.
    You drive nails into wood with a hammer.‎
  5. (transitive) To cause (a mechanism) to operate.
    The pistons drive the crankshaft.‎
  6. (transitive, ergative) To operate (a wheeled motorized vehicle).
    drive a car‎
  7. (transitive) To motivate; to provide an incentive for.
    What drives a person to run a marathon?‎
  8. (transitive) To compel (to do something).
    Their debts finally drove them to sell the business.‎
  9. (transitive) To cause to become.
    • 1898, Winston Churchill, chapter 4, in The Celebrity:
      One morning I had been driven to the precarious refuge afforded by the steps of the inn, after rejecting offers from the Celebrity to join him in a variety of amusements. But even here I was not free from interruption, for he was seated on a horse-block below me, playing with a fox terrier.
    This constant complaining is going to drive me to insanity.   You are driving me crazy!‎
  10. (intransitive, cricket, tennis, baseball) To hit the ball with a drive.
  11. (intransitive) To travel by operating a wheeled motorized vehicle.
    I drive to work every day.‎
  12. (transitive) To convey (a person, etc) in a wheeled motorized vehicle.
    My wife drove me to the airport.‎
  13. (intransitive) To move forcefully.
    • Dryden
      Fierce Boreas drove against his flying sails.
    • Prescott
      under cover of the night and a driving tempest
    • Tennyson
      Time driveth onward fast, / And in a little while our lips are dumb.
    • 2010 December 29, Mark Vesty, “Wigan 2-2 Arsenal”, in BBC:
      The impressive Frenchman drove forward with purpose down the right before cutting infield and darting in between Vassiriki Diaby and Koscielny.
  14. To urge, press, or bring to a point or state.
    • Tennyson
      enough to drive one mad
    • Sir Philip Sidney
      He, driven to dismount, threatened, if I did not do the like, to do as much for my horse as fortune had done for his.
  15. To carry or to keep in motion; to conduct; to prosecute.
    • Collier
      The trade of life can not be driven without partners.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Francis Bacon to this entry?)
  16. To clear, by forcing away what is contained.
    • Dryden
      to drive the country, force the swains away
  17. (mining) To dig horizontally; to cut a horizontal gallery or tunnel.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Tomlinson to this entry?)
  18. (American football) To put together a drive (n.): to string together offensive plays and advance the ball down the field.
  19. (obsolete) To distrain for rent.
  20. To be the dominant party where two people are engaged in a sex act.

Synonyms

Hyponyms

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Anagrams

Danish

Etymology 1

From Old Norse drífa, from Proto-Germanic *drībaną, from Proto-Indo-European *dʰreybʰ- ‎(“to drive, push”). Compare Swedish driva, Icelandic drífa, English drive, Low German drieven, North Frisian driwe, Dutch drijven, German treiben.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /driːvə/, [d̥ʁiːwə]

Noun

drive c (singular definite driven, plural indefinite driver)

  1. drift
Inflection

Verb

drive ‎(imperative driv, present driver, past drev, past participle drevet, dreven or drevne, present participle drivende)

  1. drive
  2. run
  3. force
  4. power
  5. drift

Etymology 2

From English drive.

Noun

drive c

  1. drive (psychology: desire or interest, self-motivation)

Noun

drive n (singular definite drivet, plural indefinite drive)

  1. drive (golf: stroke made with a driver)
Inflection

French

Pronunciation

Verb

drive

  1. first-person singular present indicative of driver
  2. third-person singular present indicative of driver
  3. first-person singular present subjunctive of driver
  4. first-person singular present subjunctive of driver
  5. second-person singular imperative of driver

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From Old Norse drífa, from Proto-Germanic *drībaną, from Proto-Indo-European *dʰreybʰ- ‎(“to drive, push”). Compare with Swedish driva, Icelandic drífa, English drive, Dutch drijven, German treiben.

Verb

drive ‎(imperative driv, present tense driver, passive drives, simple past drev or dreiv, past participle drevet, present tense drivende)

  1. to move; turn
  2. to pursue
  3. to deviate
  4. to float; drift
  5. to operate; run
  6. to follow
  7. to drive, propel

Derived terms

References

Portuguese

Etymology

Borrowing from English drive.

Pronunciation

  • (Brazil) IPA(key): /ˈdɾajv/, /ˈdɾaj.vi/

Noun

drive m (plural drives)

  1. (computer hardware) drive (a mass-storage device)

Etymology

Borrowing from English drive.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /dʁaɪf/

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