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.
Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
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