English
drive
Pronunciation
  • enPR: drīv, IPA: /dɹaɪv/
  • IPA: [d̠ɹ̠ ̝ʷaɪv]
Noun

drive

  1. Motivation to do or achieve something; ability coupled with ambition.
    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.
    • The Murdstonian drive in business.
  3. An act of driving animals forward, as 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 vehicle (now generally in a motor vehicle).
    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.
  7. A driveway.
    The mansion had a long, tree-lined drive.
  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.
    • 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.
  11. (computer hardware) An apparatus for reading and writing data to or from a mass storage device such as a disk, as a floppy drive.
  12. (computer hardware) 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.
  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. (retail) A campaign aimed at selling more of a certain product, e.g. by offering a discount.
  20. (typography) An impression or matrix formed by a punch drift.
  21. A collection of objects that are driven; a mass of logs to be floated down a river.
Synonyms Antonyms Translations Translations Translations Translations
  • French: voyage (en voiture/auto), virée (en voiture/auto)
  • German: Fahrt
  • Portuguese: viagem/passeio (de carro/automóvel)
  • Russian: езда́
Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations
  • German: Drive
  • Russian: драйв
Translations
  • Russian: драйв
Verb

drive (drives, present participle driving; past drove, past participle driven)

  1. (transitive) To impel or urge onward by force; to push forward; to compel to move on.
    to drive sheep out of a field
    • c. 1607, William Shakespeare, Coriolanus, Act IV, Scene 7,
      One fire drives out one fire; one nail, one nail;
      Rights by rights falter, strengths by strengths do fail.
    • 1881, Benjamin Jowett (translator), Thucydides [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.
  2. (transitive, intransitive) To direct a vehicle powered by a horse, ox or similar animal.
    • c. 1605, William Shakespeare, King Lear, Act II, Scene 6,
      There is a litter ready; lay him in’t
      And drive towards Dover, friend, where thou shalt meet
      Both welcome and protection.
  3. (transitive) To cause animals to flee out of.
    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.
    • 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.
    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#Noun|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.
    • c. 1600, William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act II, Chapter 2,
      […] Unequal match’d,
      Pyrrhus at Priam drives, in rage strikes wide;
    • 1697, John Dryden (translator), The Aeneid, Book I, lines 146-148, in The Works of Virgil, Volume 2, London: J. Tonson, 1709, 3rd edition, pp. 306-307,
      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, p. 113,
      Time driveth onward fast,
      And in a little while our lips are dumb.
    • 1855, William H. Prescott, History of the Reign of Philip the Second, King of Spain, Boston: Phillips, Sampson & Co., Volume I, Chapter 1, p. 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 […]
  14. (intransitive) To be moved or propelled forcefully (especially of a ship).
    • c. 1608, William Shakespeare, Pericles, Act III, Prologue,
      […] as a duck for life that dives,
      So up and down the poor ship drives:
    • 1743, Robert Drury (sailor), The Pleasant, and Surprizing Adventures of Mr. Robert Drury, during his Fifteen Years Captivity on the Island of Madagascar, London, p. 12,
      […] the Captain […] order’d the Cable to be cut, and let the Ship drive nearer the Land, where she soon beat to pieces:
  15. (transitive) To urge, press, or bring to a point or state.
    • 1590, Philip Sidney, The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia, London: William Ponsonbie, Book 2, Chapter 19, p. 186,
      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. 1591, William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 1, Act V, Scene 4,
      But darkness and the gloomy shade of death
      Environ you, till mischief and despair
      Drive you to break your necks or hang yourselves!
  16. (transitive) To carry or to keep in motion; to conduct; to prosecute.
    • 1694, Jeremy Collier, Miscellanies in Five Essays, London: Sam. Keeble & Jo. Hindmarsh, “Of General Kindness,” p. 69,
      You know the Trade of Life can’t be driven without Partners; there is a reciprocal Dependance between the Greatest and the Least.
  17. (transitive) To clear, by forcing away what is contained.
    • 1697, John Dryden (translator), The Aeneid, Book I, lines 744-745, in The Works of Virgil, Volume 2, London: J. Tonson, 1709, 3rd edition, p. 328,
      We come not with design of wastful Prey,
      To drive the Country, force the Swains away:
  18. (mining) To dig horizontally; to cut a horizontal gallery or tunnel.
  19. (American football) To put together a drive (n.): to string together offensive plays and advance the ball down the field.
  20. (obsolete) To distrain for rent.
  21. (transitive) To separate the lighter (feathers or down) from the heavier, by exposing them to a current of air.
  22. To be the dominant party in a sex act.
Synonyms Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations

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