Definition of "drive"

drive

/dɹaɪv/

noun
countable and uncountable, plural drives
1. Planned, usually long-lasting, effort to achieve something; ability coupled with ambition, determination, and motivation.
  Quotations
  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
2. Violent or rapid motion; a rushing onward or away; especially, a forced or hurried dispatch of business.
  Quotations
  The Murdstonian drive in business.
  1881, Matthew Arnold, The Incompatibles
3. An act of driving (prompting) game animals forward, to be captured or hunted.
  Quotations
  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
4. An act of driving (prompting) livestock animals forward, to transport a herd.
5. (military) A sustained advance in the face of the enemy to take a strategic objective.
  Quotations
  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
6. A mechanism used to power or give motion to a vehicle or other machine or machine part.
  Quotations
  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, page 146
7. A trip made in a vehicle (now generally in a motor vehicle).
  Quotations
  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
8. A driveway.
  Quotations
  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.
9. A type of public roadway.
10. (dated) A place suitable or agreeable for driving; a road prepared for driving.
11. (psychology) Desire or interest.
  Quotations
  On the latter show, former Playboy Playmate Carrie Westcott said she'd never met a man who could match her sexual drive.
  1995 March 2, John Carman, "Believe It, You Saw It in Sweeps", SFGate
12. (computer hardware) An apparatus for reading and writing data to or from a mass storage device such as a disk.
13. (computer hardware) A mass storage device in which the mechanism for reading and writing data is integrated with the mechanism for storing data.
14. (golf) A stroke made with a driver.
15. (baseball, tennis) A ball struck in a flat trajectory.
16. (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.
17. (soccer) A straight level shot or pass.
  Quotations
  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
18. (American football) An offensive possession, generally one consisting of several plays and/ or first downs, often leading to a scoring opportunity.
19. A charity event such as a fundraiser, bake sale, or toy drive.
20. (retail) A campaign aimed at selling more of a certain product, e.g. by offering a discount.
21. (typography) An impression or matrix formed by a punch drift.
22. A collection of objects that are driven; a mass of logs to be floated down a river.
verb
third-person singular simple present drives, present participle driving, simple past drove or (archaic) drave or (dialectal) driv, past participle driven or (dialectal) druv
1. (transitive) To provide an impetus for motion or other physical change, to move an object by means of the provision of force thereto.
2. (transitive) To provide an impetus for a non-physical change, especially a change in one's state of mind.
3. To displace either physically or non-physically, through the application of force.
  Quotations
  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, [Act IV, scene vii]
4. To cause intrinsic motivation through the application or demonstration of force: to impel or urge onward thusly, to compel to move on, to coerce, intimidate or threaten.
  Quotations
  […] 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
5. (transitive) (especially of animals) To impel or urge onward by force; to push forward; to compel to move on.
6. (transitive, intransitive) To direct a vehicle powered by a horse, ox or similar animal.
  Quotations
  There is a litter ready; lay him in’tAnd drive towards Dover, friend, where thou shalt meetBoth 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, [Act II, scene vi]
  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.
7. (transitive) To cause animals to flee out of.
8. (transitive) To move (something) by hitting it with great force.
9. (transitive) To cause (a mechanism) to operate.
10. (transitive, ergative) To operate (a wheeled motorized vehicle).
11. (transitive, slang, aviation) To operate (an aircraft).
12. (transitive) To motivate; to provide an incentive for.
13. (transitive) To compel (to do something).
14. (transitive) To cause to become.
  Quotations
  And then to hear a dead man chatter / Is enough to drive one mad.
  1855, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Maud, XXV, 1. in Maud, and Other Poems, London: Edward Moxon, p. 90
  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.
15. (intransitive, cricket, tennis, baseball) To hit the ball with a drive.
16. (intransitive) To travel by operating a wheeled motorized vehicle.
17. (transitive) To convey (a person, etc.) in a wheeled motorized vehicle.
18. (intransitive) To move forcefully.
  Quotations
  […] 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, [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, […], lines 146-148
  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
  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, 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 November 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
19. (intransitive) To be moved or propelled forcefully (especially of a ship).
  Quotations
  […] as a duck for life that dives,So up and down the poor ship drives:
  c. 1607–1608, William Shakeſpeare, The Late, And much admired Play, Called Pericles, Prince of Tyre. […], London: Imprinted at London for Henry Goſſon, […], published 1609, [Act III, Prologue]
  […] 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
20. (transitive) To urge, press, or bring to a point or state.
  Quotations
  He driuen to dismount, threatned, if I did not the like, to doo as much for my horse, as Fortune had done for his.
  c. 1580 (date written), Philippe Sidnei [i.e., Philip Sidney], “[The Second Booke] Chapter 19”, in Fulke Greville, Matthew Gwinne, and John Florio, editors, The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia [The New Arcadia], London: […] [John Windet] for William Ponsonbie, published 1590; republished in Albert Feuillerat, editor, The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia (Cambridge English Classics: The Complete Works of Sir Philip Sidney; I), Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: University Press, 1912, page 186
  But darkness and the gloomy shade of deathEnviron you, till mischief and despairDrive 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, [Act V, scene iv]
  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
21. (transitive) To carry or to keep in motion; to conduct; to prosecute.
  Quotations
  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
22. (transitive) To clear, by forcing away what is contained.
  Quotations
  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, […], lines 744-745
23. (mining) To dig horizontally; to cut a horizontal gallery or tunnel.
  Quotations
  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
  1852-1866, Charles Tomlinson, Cyclopaedia of Useful Arts and Manufactures
24. (American football) To put together a drive (n.): to string together offensive plays and advance the ball down the field.
25. (obsolete) To distrain for rent.
26. (transitive) To separate the lighter (feathers or down) from the heavier, by exposing them to a current of air.
27. To be the dominant party in a sex act.

Definition of "drive"

drive

noun

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

verb

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations