drive

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”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰer- (“support, hold”). Cognates Cognate with Scots drive (“to drive”), North Frisian driwe (“to drive”), Saterland Frisian drieuwe (“to drive”), West Frisian driuwe (“to chase, drive, impel”), Dutch drijven (“to drive”), Low German drieven (“to drive, drift, push”), German treiben (“to drive, push, propel”), Norwegian Bokmål drive, Danish drive (“to drive, run, force”), Norwegian Nynorsk driva, Swedish driva (“to drive, power, drift, push, force”), Icelandic drífa (“to drive, hurry, rush”).

noun

1. Planned, usually long-lasting, effort to achieve something; ability coupled with ambition, determination, and motivation.
   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
   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. 1881, Matthew Arnold, The Incompatibles
3. An act of driving (prompting) game animals forward, to be captured or hunted.
   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.
   Napoleon's drive on Moscow was as determined as it was disastrous.
   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.
   a typical steam drive
   a nuclear drive
   chain drive
   front-wheel drive
   Some old model trains have clockwork drives.
   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).
   It was a long drive.
   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.
   The mansion had a long, tree-lined drive.
9. A type of public roadway.
   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.
    1995 March 2, John Carman, "Believe It, You Saw It in Sweeps", SFGate http://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/Believe-It-You-Saw-It-In-Sweeps-3043091.php 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.
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.
    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. December 29, 2010, 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.
    a whist drive
    a beetle drive
20. (retail) A campaign aimed at selling more of a certain product, e.g. by offering a discount.
    vaccination drive
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

1. (transitive) To provide an impetus for motion or other physical change, to move an object by means of the provision of force thereto.
   You drive nails into wood with a hammer.
2. (transitive) To provide an impetus for a non-physical change, especially a change in one's state of mind.
   My husband's constant harping about the condition of the house threatens to drive me to distraction.
3. To displace either physically or non-physically, through the application of force.
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.
   […] 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.
   to drive twenty thousand head of cattle from Texas to the Kansas railheads; to drive sheep out of a field
6. (transitive, intransitive) To direct a vehicle powered by a horse, ox or similar animal.
7. (transitive) To cause animals to flee out of.
   The hunting dog drove the birds out of the tall grass.
8. (transitive) To move (something) by hitting it with great force.
   You drive nails into wood with a hammer.
9. (transitive) To cause (a mechanism) to operate.
   The pistons drive the crankshaft.
10. (transitive, ergative) To operate (a wheeled motorized vehicle).
    drive a car
    This SUV drives like a car.
11. (transitive, slang, aviation) To operate (an aircraft).
    drive a 737
12. (transitive) To motivate; to provide an incentive for.
    What drives a person to run a marathon?
13. (transitive) To compel (to do something).
    Their debts finally drove them to sell the business.
14. (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!
15. (intransitive, cricket, tennis, baseball) To hit the ball with a drive.
16. (intransitive) To travel by operating a wheeled motorized vehicle.
    I drive to work every day.
17. (transitive) To convey (a person, etc.) in a wheeled motorized vehicle.
    My cousin drove me to the airport.
18. (intransitive) To move forcefully.
    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
    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 2022-11-24, page 175
    The impressive Frenchman drove forward with purpose down the right before cutting infield and darting in between Vassiriki Diaby and Koscielny. December 29, 2010, Mark Vesty, “Wigan 2-2 Arsenal”, in BBC
19. (intransitive) To be moved or propelled forcefully (especially of a ship).
    […] 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.
    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... January 12 2022, 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.
    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.
23. (mining) To dig horizontally; to cut a horizontal gallery or 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
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.