drive

Alternative forms

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

Etymology

From 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”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: drīv, IPA^(key): /dɹaɪv/, [d͡ʒɹaɪv], [d̠ɹ̠ ̝ʷaɪv]

• Audio (Received Pronunciation); “to drive” [tuˈdɹaɪv]:

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• Audio (US):

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• Audio (General Australian):

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• Rhymes: -aɪv

Verb

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

1. To operate a vehicle:
   1. (transitive, ergative) To operate (a wheeled motorized vehicle).

      Synonym: ride

      Hyponym: test-drive

      drive a car

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

   2. (intransitive) To travel by operating a wheeled motorized vehicle.

      Synonym: motorvate

      I drive to work every day.

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

      Synonym: take

      My cousin drove me to the airport.

   4. (transitive, slang, aviation) To operate (an aircraft); to pilot.

      Synonyms: fly, pilot

      drive a 737

   5. (transitive, intransitive) To direct a vehicle powered by a horse, ox or similar animal.
      • 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]:

        There is a litter ready; lay him in’t
        And drive towards Dover, friend, where thou shalt meet
        Both welcome and protection.

      • 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:

        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.

2. To compel to move:
   2. (transitive) (especially of animals) To impel or urge onward by force; to push forward; to compel to move on.

      Synonyms: drove, goad, herd

      to drive twenty thousand head of cattle from Texas to the Kansas railheads; to drive sheep out of a field

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

      Synonyms: flush, flush out, scare up

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

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

3. To cause to move by the application of physical force:
   1. (transitive) To provide an impetus for motion or other physical change, to move an object by means of the provision of force thereto.

      Synonyms: force, push

      You drive nails into wood with a hammer.

   2. (transitive) To cause (a mechanism) to operate.

      Synonyms: move, operate

      The pistons drive the crankshaft.

   4. (intransitive, sports, cricket, tennis, baseball) To hit the ball with a drive.
   5. (transitive) To separate the lighter (feathers or down) from the heavier, by exposing them to a current of air.
4. (transitive) To displace either physically or non-physically, through the application of force.
   • 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]:

     One fire drives out one fire; one nail, one nail;
     Rights by rights falter, strengths by strengths do fail.

5. To compel to undergo a non-physical change:
   1. (transitive) To 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. (transitive) To motivate; to provide an incentive for.

      Synonyms: impel, incentivise, incentivize, push, urge; see also Thesaurus:incite

      What drives a person to run a marathon?

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

      Synonyms: compel, force, oblige, push, require

      Their debts finally drove them to sell the business.

      • 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:

        He driuen to dismount, threatned, if I did not the like, to doo as much for my horse, as Fortune had done for his.

      • 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]:

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

   4. (transitive) To cause to become.

      Synonyms: make, send, render

      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.

      • 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:

        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.

   5. (transitive) To motivate through the application or demonstration of force; to impel or urge onward in such a way.

      Synonyms: coerce, intimidate, threaten; see also Thesaurus:intimidate

      Frothing at the mouth and threatening expulsion, Coach relentlessly drove the team to more laps of the pitch.

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

        […] 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.

   6. (transitive) To urge, press, or bring to a point or state.

      The negotiations were driven to completion minutes before the final deadline.

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

        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...

6. (intransitive) To move forcefully.

   Synonyms: onrush, plough

   • 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]:

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

   • 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:

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

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

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

   • 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:

     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 […]

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

     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.

   • 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.

7. (intransitive) To be moved or propelled forcefully (especially of a ship).
   • 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]:

     […] as a duck for life that dives,
     So up and down the poor ship drives:

   • 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:

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

8. (transitive) To carry or to keep in motion; to conduct; to prosecute.

   Synonyms: continue, carry on, pursue

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

     You know the Trade of Life can’t be driven without Partners; there is a reciprocal Dependance between the Greatest and the Least.

9. (transitive) To clear, by forcing away what is contained.

   Synonyms: empty, evacuate, void

   • 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:

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

10. (mining) To dig horizontally; to cut a horizontal gallery or tunnel.

    Synonym: 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

11. (American football) To put together a drive (n.): to string together offensive plays and advance the ball down the field.
12. (obsolete) To distrain for rent.
13. To be the dominant party in a sex act. (Can we add an example for this sense?)

    Synonym: dominate

Noun

drive (countable and uncountable, plural drives)

2. Planned, usually long-lasting, effort to achieve something; ability coupled with ambition, determination, and motivation.

   Synonyms: ambition, grit, push, verve, motivation, get-up-and-go, self-motivation

   Antonyms: inertia, lack of motivation, laziness, phlegm, sloth

   Crassus had wealth and wit, but Pompey had drive and Caesar as much again.

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

     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.

   • 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.

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

     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.

3. Violent or rapid motion; a rushing onward or away; (especially) a forced or hurried dispatch of business.
   • 1881, Matthew Arnold, The Incompatibles:

     The Murdstonian drive in business.

4. An act of driving (prompting) animals forward.
   1. An act of driving game animals forward, to be captured or hunted.
      • 1955, Robin Jenkins, The Cone-Gatherers, Canongate, published 2012, page 79:

        Are you all ready?’ he cried, and set off towards the dead ash where the drive would begin.

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

      Synonyms: drove, drift

5. (military) A sustained advance in the face of the enemy to take an objective.

   Synonyms: attack, push

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

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

     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.

6. A mechanism used to power or give motion to a vehicle or other machine or machine part.

   Synonyms: gear, engine, motor

   a typical steam drive

   a nuclear drive

   chain drive

   front-wheel drive

   Some old model trains have clockwork drives.

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

     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:

7. A trip made in a vehicle (now generally in a motor vehicle).

   Synonyms: ride, spin, trip

   It was a long drive.

   • 1859, Wilkie Collins, The Woman in White‎:

     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.

8. A driveway.

   Synonyms: approach, driveway

   The mansion had a long, tree-lined drive.

   • 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:

     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.

9. A type of public roadway.

   Synonyms: avenue, boulevard, road, street

   Beverly Hills’ most famous street is Rodeo Drive.

10. (dated) A place suitable or agreeable for driving; a road prepared for driving.
11. (psychology) Desire or interest.

    Synonyms: desire, impetus, impulse, urge

    • 1995 March 2, John Carman, "Believe It, You Saw It in Sweeps", SFGate

      On the latter show, former Playboy Playmate Carrie Westcott said she'd never met a man who could match her sexual drive.

12. (computer hardware) An apparatus for reading and writing data to or from a mass storage device such as a disk.

    Synonym: disk drive

    Hyponym: floppy drive

13. (computer hardware) A mass storage device in which the mechanism for reading and writing data is integrated with the mechanism for storing data.

    Hyponyms: hard drive, flash drive

14. (golf) A stroke made with a driver.
16. (baseball, tennis) A ball struck in a flat trajectory.
17. (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.
18. (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.

19. (American football) An offensive possession, generally one consisting of several plays and/ or first downs, often leading to a scoring opportunity.
20. (philanthropy) A charity event such as a fundraiser, bake sale, or toy drive.

    a whist drive

    a beetle drive

21. (retail) A campaign aimed at selling more of a certain product, e.g. by offering a discount.

    vaccination drive

22. (typography) An impression or matrix formed by a punch drift.
23. A collection of objects that are driven; a mass of logs to be floated down a river.
24. (UK, especially Bristol and Wales, slang) Friendly term of address for a bus driver.
    • 2017 March 21, Leonora Brito, Dat's Love and Other Stories, Parthian Books, →ISBN:

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

    • 2017 July 1, Huw Lewis, To Hear the Skylark's Song, 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.

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

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

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

Anagrams

• Verdi, deriv., diver, rived, vired

Etymology 1

From Old Norse drífa, from Proto-Germanic *drībaną, cognate with Swedish driva, English drive, Dutch drijven, German treiben.

Etymology 2

From Old Norse drífa f, derived from the verb.

Etymology 3

From English drive.