drive

present singular third person drives · participle present driving · past drove · archaic past drave · dialectal past driv · participle past driven · dialectal participle past druv · dialectal participle past drove · first person past singular drove · dialectal first person past singular driv · archaic first person past singular drave · archaic present second person singular drivest · past second person singular drove · dialectal past second person singular driv · archaic past second person singular drovest · archaic past second person singular drave

1. To operate a vehicle:
   1. ergativetransitiveTo operate (a wheeled motorized vehicle).

      The bridges weren't strong enough to drive (campers) over.

      1 more example

      This SUV drives insanely smoothly—it's like it knows what I want before I do.

      Synonyms: ride

   2. intransitiveTo travel by operating a wheeled motorized vehicle.

      I drive to work every day.

      Synonyms: motorvate

   3. transitiveTo convey (a person, etc.) in a wheeled motorized vehicle.

      My cousin drove me to the airport.

      Synonyms: take

   4. slangtransitiveaeronauticsTo operate (an aircraft); to pilot.

      drive a 737

      Synonyms: fly, pilot

   5. intransitivetransitiveTo 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.

      c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene vi]

      1 more example

      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.

      1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter II, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC

2. To compel to move:
   1. 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

      Synonyms: drove, goad, herd

   2. transitive(especially animals) To cause to flee out of.

      The hunting dog drove the birds out of the tall grass.

      1 more example

      We'll drive the enemy from these lands once and for all.

      Synonyms: flush, flush out, scare up

3. To cause to move by the application of physical force:
   1. 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.

      1 more example

      Moving very quietly, I crept up the stairs, and at the top drove one drawing-pin into the lintel about a foot up, another at the same height into the baluster opposite […]

      1923, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], “(please specify the page)”, in The Eyes of Max Carrados, London: Grant Richards, →OCLC

      Synonyms: force, push

   2. transitiveTo cause (a mechanism) to operate.

      The pistons drive the crankshaft.

      Synonyms: move, operate

   3. intransitiveball gamesTo hit the ball with a drive.
   4. transitiveTo separate the lighter (feathers or down) from the heavier, by exposing them to a current of air.
4. 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.

   c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene vii]

5. To compel to undergo a non-physical change:
   1. 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.

   2. transitiveTo motivate; to provide an incentive for.

      What drives a person to run a marathon?

      Synonyms: impel, incentivise, incentivize, push, urge, abet, actuate, goose

   3. transitiveTo compel, exert pressure, coerce (to do something).

      Their debts finally drove them to sell the business.

      2 more examples

      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

      c. 1580 (date written), Philippe Sidnei [i.e., Philip Sidney], “(please specify the folio)”, in [Fulke Greville; Matthew Gwinne; John Florio], editors, The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia [The New Arcadia], London: […] [John Windet] for William Ponsonbie, published 1590, →OCLC

      But darkness and the gloomy shade of death Environ you, till mischief and despair Drive you to break your necks or hang yourselves!

      1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iv]

      Synonyms: compel, force, oblige, push, require

   4. transitiveTo cause to become.

      You are driving me crazy!

      3 more examples

      This constant complaining is going to drive me insane.

      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.

      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.

      1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC

      Synonyms: make, send, render

   5. 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.

      1 more example

      […] 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 Pylos.

      1881, “Thucydides”, in Benjamin Jowett, transl., History of the Peloponnesian War, Oxford: Clarendon, Volume I, Book 4, p. 247

      Synonyms: coerce, intimidate, threaten, buffalo, bulldoze, bully, browbeat, cow

   6. transitiveTo urge, press, or bring to a point or state.

      If you drive yourself so much, you'll end up having a breakdown.

      2 more examples

      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...

      2022 January 12, Nigel Harris, “Comment: Unhappy start to 2022”, in RAIL, number 948, page 3

6. intransitiveTo move forcefully.

   Time driveth onward fast, And in a little while our lips are dumb.

   1833, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, “The Lotos-Eaters”, in Poems, London: Edward Moxon, page 113

   5 more examples

   […] Unequal match’d, Pyrrhus at Priam drives, in rage strikes wide;

   c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii]

   Thus while the Pious Prince his Fate bewails, Fierce Boreas drove against his flying Sails. And rent the Sheets […]

   1697, Virgil, “The First Book of the Æneis”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, lines 146-148

   Charles, ill in body and mind, and glad to escape from his enemies under cover of the night and a driving tempest, was at length compelled to sign the treaty of Passau […]

   1855, William H[ickling] Prescott, chapter 1, in History of the Reign of Philip the Second, King of Spain, volume I, Boston, Mass.: Phillips, Sampson, and Company, →OCLC, book I, page 7

   It would seem they were regarding this new antagonist with astonishment. To their intelligence, it may be, the giant was even such another as themselves. The Thunder Child fired no gun, but simply drove full speed towards them. It was probably her not firing that enabled her to get so near the enemy as she did. They did not know what to make of her. One shell, and they would have sent her to the bottom forthwith with the Heat-Ray.

   1898, H.G. Wells, “The "Thunder Child."”, in The War of the Worlds, Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, retrieved 24 Nov 2022, page 175

   The impressive Frenchman drove forward with purpose down the right before cutting infield and darting in between Vassiriki Diaby and Koscielny.

   2010 December 29, Mark Vesty, “Wigan 2-2 Arsenal”, in BBC

   Synonyms: onrush, plough

7. 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:

   c. 1607–1608 (date written), William Shakespeare, [George Wilkins?], The Late, and Much Admired Play, Called Pericles, Prince of Tyre. […], London: […] [William White and Thomas Creede] for Henry Gosson, […], published 1609, →OCLC, [Act III, prologue]

   1 more example

   […] the Captain […] order’d the Cable to be cut, and let the Ship drive nearer the Land, where she soon beat to pieces:

   1743, Robert Drury, The Pleasant, and Surprizing Adventures of Mr. Robert Drury, during his Fifteen Years Captivity on the Island of Madagascar, London, page 12

8. 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.

   1694, Jeremy Collier, “Of General Kindness”, in Miscellanies in Five Essays, London: Sam. Keeble & Jo. Hindmarsh, page 69

   Synonyms: continue, carry on, pursue

9. transitiveTo clear, by forcing away what is contained.

   We come not with design of wastful Prey, To drive the Country, force the Swains away:

   1697, Virgil, “The First Book of the Æneis”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, lines 744-745

   Synonyms: empty, evacuate, void

10. businessTo 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 lodes found

    Synonyms: tunnel

11. American footballTo put together a drive (n.): to string together offensive plays and advance the ball down the field.
12. obsoleteTo distrain for rent.
13. To be the dominant party in a sex act.

    Synonyms: dominate

plural drives · alternative Dr.

1. countableuncountablePlanned, 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.

   4 more examples

   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 of the railway pioneers.

   1951 December, Michael Robbins, “John Francis's "History of the English Railway"”, in Railway Magazine, page 800

   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.

   1986, Fred Matheny, Solo Cycling: How to Train and Race Bicycle Time Trials, page 136

   Although British involvement in the slave trade prior to 1807 cannot be denied, or its effects diminished, it is also a fact that the Royal Navy was pretty much the only force in the world in the 19th century with the numbers, drive, willingness, firepower, and capability to curtail the global slave trade, and that, without these efforts, many more would no doubt have been taken to slave plantations and other such destinations during the 19th, and possibly even into the 20th, centuries, as it must be remembered that a great many European powers would only begrudgingly commit to ending the slave trade when the other option was continuous war with the British Empire.

   2018 December 1, Drachinifel, 11:37 from the start, in Anti-Slavery Patrols - The West Africa Squadron, archived from the original on 29 Nov 2024

   I can make money from the comfort of my sofa / So much drive, now I gotta get a chauffeur

   2024, “Hot One”, in King of the Mischievous South Vol. 2, performed by Denzel Curry, Note the word play involving the senses of operating a vehicle

   Synonyms: ambition, grit, push, verve, motivation, get-up-and-go, self-motivation · Antonyms: inertia, lack of motivation, laziness, phlegm, sloth

2. countableuncountableViolent or rapid motion; a rushing onward or away; (especially) a forced or hurried dispatch of business.

   The Murdstonian drive in business.

   1881, Matthew Arnold, The Incompatibles

3. An act of driving (prompting) animals forward.
   1. broadlycountableuncountableAn 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.

      1955, Robin Jenkins, The Cone-Gatherers, Canongate, published 2012, page 79

   2. broadlycountableuncountableAn act of driving livestock animals forward, to transport a herd.

      Synonyms: drove, drift

4. countableuncountablegovernmentA sustained advance in the face of the enemy to take an objective.

   Napoleon's drive on Moscow was as determined as it was disastrous.

   1 more example

   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.

   1941 August, Charles E. Lee, “Railways of Italian East Africa—I”, in Railway Magazine, page 340

   Synonyms: attack, push

5. Certain mechanisms in vehicles.
   1. countableuncountableA mechanism used to power or give motion to a vehicle or other machine or machine part.

      Some old model trains have clockwork drives.

      3 more examples

      steam drive, nuclear drive, chain drive, rear-wheel drive, all-wheel drive, front-wheel drive

      A universal joint shaft takes the drive to the final drive unit mounted centrally on one of the axles.

      1958 April 28, “Diesel Railbus for British Railways”, in Railway Magazine, page 275

      Heat engine-electric hybrid vehicles : The hybrid vehicle on which most development work has been done to date is the one that couples a heat engine with an electric drive system. The objective remains the same as it was in 1900:

      2001, Michael Hereward Westbrook, The Electric Car, IET, →ISBN, page 146

      Synonyms: gear, engine, motor

   2. countableuncountableThe location of the steering wheel used to control a vehicle.

      left-hand drive, right-hand drive

   3. countableuncountableautomotiveThe 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.

6. countableuncountableAn act of piloting or riding within a vehicle (now generally in a motor vehicle).

   The drive this morning was awful due to snow and ice.

   1. countableuncountableA trip made in a vehicle (now generally in a motor vehicle).

      It was a long drive to Santa Fe.

      1 more example

      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.

      1859, Wilkie Collins, The Woman in White

      Synonyms: ride, spin, trip

   2. countableuncountableThe act of driving a car with no destination in mind, generally to see the scenery, be alone with one's thoughts or to spend time with a partner.

      We like to go for a drive on Sunday afternoons.

7. Certain surfaces for driving on.
   1. countabledateduncountableA place suitable or agreeable for driving; a road prepared for driving.
   2. countableuncountableA driveway.

      The mansion had a long, tree-lined drive.

      3 more examples

      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.

      1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter V, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC

      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.

      1957 December 28, H. R. Stones, “The Hellingly Hospital Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 871

      I listen for your footsteps coming up the drive / Listen for your footsteps, but they don't arrive

      1968, Ringo Starr, “Don't Pass Me By”, performed by The Beatles

      Synonyms: approach, driveway

   3. capitalizedcountableuncountablegenerallyA type of public roadway.

      Beverly Hills’ most famous street is Rodeo Drive.

      Synonyms: avenue, boulevard, road, street

8. countableuncountablehuman sciencesDesire 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 Playmate Carrie Westcott said she'd never met a man who could match her sexual drive.

   Synonyms: desire, impetus, impulse, urge

9. A device for reading and writing data.
   1. countableuncountablecomputer hardwareAn apparatus for reading and writing data to or from a mass storage device such as a disk.

      Synonyms: disk drive

   2. countableuncountablecomputer hardwareA mass storage device in which the mechanism for reading and writing data is integrated with the mechanism for storing data.
10. countableuncountableThe state of being under pressure, stressed and hurried.

    I suffered under the intense drive of my new job.

11. countableuncountablegolfA stroke made with a driver.
12. countableuncountableball gamesA ball struck in a flat trajectory.

    a long drive

13. countableuncountableball gamesA 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.
14. countableuncountableball gamesA 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.

    2010 December 29, Mark Vesty, “Wigan 2-2 Arsenal”, in BBC

15. countableuncountableAmerican footballAn offensive possession, generally one consisting of several plays and/ or first downs, often leading to a scoring opportunity.
16. countableuncountableA charity event such as a fundraiser, bake sale, or toy drive.

    a whist drive

    2 more examples

    a fund-raising drive

    a beetle drive

17. countableuncountablebusinessA campaign aimed at selling or promoting (something).

    vaccination drive

18. countableuncountablemediaAn impression or matrix formed by a punch drift.
19. countableuncountableA collection of objects that are driven.
    1. countableuncountableA mass of logs to be floated down a river or the act of moving them thusly.
20. UKcountableslanguncountableespecially Bristol and WalesFriendly term of address for a bus driver.

    'Cheers, Drive!' said Dylan as they climbed off the bus.

    2019 May 30, Ed Clarke, The Secret Dragon, Penguin UK, →ISBN

    3 more examples

    Yeah, thanks, drive! You boyz all goin' shoppin'? We are, drive, says Chip.

    2017 March 21, Leonora Brito, Dat's Love and Other Stories, Parthian Books, →ISBN

    The coaches dropped us where we had begun, outside the chapel; each child in turn piping up, 'Thank you, drive!' as we disembarked.

    2017 July 1, Huw Lewis, To Hear the Skylark's Song, Parthian Books, →ISBN

    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.

    2018 June 28, Wilf Merttens, Bristol Urban Legends: The Hotwells Crocodile and Other Stories, The History Press, →ISBN