Crossword Dictionary

What's The Definition Of Drive?

\Drive\ (dr[imac]v), v. t. [imp. {Drove} (dr[=o]v), formerly {Drave} (dr[=a]v); p. p. {Driven} (dr[i^]v'n); p. pr. & vb. n. {Driving}.] [AS. dr[=i]fan; akin to OS. dr[=i]ban, D. drijven, OHG. tr[=i]ban, G. treiben, Icel. dr[=i]fa, 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. Note: 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\, v. 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\ (dr[imac]v), p. p. Driven. [Obs.] --Chaucer.
\Drive\ (dr[imac]v), n. 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. 5. A collection of objects that are driven; a mass of logs to be floated down a river. [Colloq.] Syn: See {Ride}.
\Drive\, v. i. (Golf) To make a drive, or stroke from the tee.
\Drive\, v. t. Specif., in various games, as tennis, baseball, etc., to propel (the ball) swiftly by a direct stroke or forcible throw.
\Drive\, n. 1. In various games, as tennis, cricket, etc., the act of player who drives the ball; the stroke or blow; the flight of the ball, etc., so driven. 2. (Golf) A stroke from the tee, generally a full shot made with a driver; also, the distance covered by such a stroke. 6. An implement used for driving; as: (a) A mallet. (b) A tamping iron. (c) A cooper's hammer for driving on barrel hoops. (d) A wooden-headed golf club with a long shaft, for playing the longest strokes. [Webster 1913 Suppl.]