drive
pronunciation
How to pronounce drive in British English:
UK [draɪv]
How to pronounce drive in American English:
US [draɪv]
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- Noun:
- the act of applying force to propel something
- a mechanism by which force or power is transmitted in a machine
- a series of actions advancing a principle or tending toward a particular end
- a road leading up to a private house
- the trait of being highly motivated
- hitting a golf ball off of a tee with a driver
- the act of driving a herd of animals overland
- a journey in a vehicle driven by someone else
- a physiological state corresponding to a strong need or desire
- (computer science) a device that writes data onto or reads data from a storage medium
- a wide scenic road planted with trees
- (sports) a hard straight return (as in tennis or squash)
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- Verb:
- operate or control a vehicle
- travel or be transported in a vehicle
- cause someone or something to move by driving
- force into or from an action or state, either physically or metaphorically
- to compel or force or urge relentlessly or exert coercive pressure on, or motivate strongly
- cause to move back by force or influence
- compel somebody to do something, often against his own will or judgment
- push, propel, or press with force
- cause to move rapidly by striking or throwing with force
- strive and make an effort to reach a goal
- move into a desired direction of discourse
- have certain properties when driven
- work as a driver
- move by being propelled by a force
- urge forward
- proceed along in a vehicle
- strike with a driver, as in teeing off
- hit very hard and straight with the bat swinging more or less vertically
- excavate horizontally
- cause to function by supplying the force or power for or by controlling
- hunting: search for game
- hunting: chase from cover into more open ground
Word Origin
- drive
- drive: [OE] As far as is known, drive is an exclusively Germanic word. It and its relatives German treiben, Dutch drijven, Swedish driva, Danish drive, and Gothic dreiban point to a prehistoric Germanic ancestor *drīban. Its base also produced English drift and drove [OE]. The central modern sense of drive, ‘drive a car’, comes from the earlier notion of driving a horse, ox, etc by pushing it, whipping it, etc from behind, forcing it onwards, but in most other modern European languages the verb for ‘driving a vehicle’ denotes basically ‘leading’ or ‘guiding’ (French conduire, for example, or German lenken).=> drift, drove
- drive (n.)
- 1690s, "act of driving," from drive (v.). Meaning "excursion by vehicle" is from 1785. Golfing sense of "forcible blow" is from 1836. Meaning "organized effort to raise money" is 1889, American English. Sense of "dynamism" is from 1908. In the computing sense, first attested 1963.
- drive (v.)
- Old English drifan "to drive, force, hunt, pursue; rush against" (class I strong verb; past tense draf, past participle drifen), from Proto-Germanic *driban (cognates: Old Frisian driva, Old Saxon driban, Dutch drijven, Old High German triban, German treiben, Old Norse drifa, Gothic dreiban "to drive"), from PIE root *dhreibh- "to drive, push." Original sense of "pushing from behind," altered in Modern English by application to automobiles. Related: Driving. MILLER: "The more you drive, the less intelligent you are." ["Repo Man," 1984]
Example
- 1. Altruistic motives will drive more people 's choices .
- 2. Drive a different route to work .
- 3. But what natural forces drive this extraordinary cycle ?
- 4. Who is acting when I can drive a manual ?
- 5. You can hike there or drive through the park .