Drove \Drove\, v. t. & i. [imp. & p. p. Droved; p. pr. & vb. n. Droving.]

[Cf. Drove, n., and Drover.]

1. To drive, as cattle or sheep, esp. on long journeys; to follow the occupation of a drover.

He's droving now with Conroy's sheep along the Castlereagh. --Paterson.

2. To finish, as stone, with a drove or drove chisel.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
 

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)
 

Drove \Drove\, imp. of Drive.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
 

Drove \Drove\, n. [AS. dr[=a]f, fr. dr[=i]fan to drive. See Drive.]

1. A collection of cattle driven, or cattle collected for driving; a number of animals, as oxen, sheep, or swine, driven in a body.

2. Any collection of irrational animals, moving or driving forward; as, a finny drove. --Milton.

3. A crowd of people in motion.

Where droves, as at a city gate, may pass. --Dryden.

4. A road for driving cattle; a driftway. [Eng.]

5. (Agric.) A narrow drain or channel used in the irrigation of land. --Simmonds.

6. (Masonry)
   (a) A broad chisel used to bring stone to a nearly smooth surface; -- called also drove chisel.
   (b) The grooved surface of stone finished by the drove chisel; -- called also drove work.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)