• (RP) IPA: /dɹəʊv/
• (America) IPA: /dɹoʊv/
• IPA: /d͡ʒɹoʊv/

From Middle English drove, drof, draf, from Old English drāf, from Proto-Germanic *draibō, from Proto-Indo-European *dʰreybʰ-.

drove (plural droves)

1. A cattle drive or the herd being driven by it; thus, a number of cattle driven to market or new pastures.
2. (figuratively, by extension, usually, in the plural) A large number of people on the move.

   in droves

3. (collective) A group of hares.
4. A road or track along which cattle are habitually, used to be or coil be driven; a droveway.
5. A narrow drain or channel used in the irrigation of land.
6. A broad chisel used to bring stone to a nearly smooth surface.
7. The grooved surface of stone finished by the drove chisel.

• French: troupeau, manade, horde
• German: Herde
• Italian: mandria, armento, branco
• Russian: гурт
• Spanish: manada, tropa (Arg., Bol., Par. and Ur.)

• French: foule
• German: Schar
• Italian: calca, massa
• Russian: толпа́
• Spanish: legión

• Italian: pista, passaggi obbligati, attraversamento
• Spanish: cañada, vía pecuaria

From earlier drave, from Middle English drave, draf, from Old English drāf, first and third person singular indicative preterite of drīfan ("to drive").

1. simple past of drive
   • 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 ↗:

     I had occasion […] to make a somewhat long business trip to Chicago, and on my return […] I found Farrar awaiting me in the railway station. He smiled his wonted fraction by way of greeting, […], and finally leading me to his buggy, turned and drove out of town.

2. (dialectal) past participle of drive

drove (droves, present participle droving; simple past and past participle droved)

1. To herd cattle; particularly over a long distance.

   Synonyms: drive

2. (transitive) To finish (stone) with a drove chisel.

• Italian: transumare, condurre, guidare