DRIVE, v.t. pret. Drove, [formerly drave; pp. Driven, G.]

Passage in a carriage; short excursion in riding. – Boswell.

1. To be forced along; to be impelled; to be moved by any physical force or agent; as, a ship drives before the wind.
2. To rush and press with violence; as, a storm drives against the house. Fierce Boreas drove against his flying sails. – Dryden.
3. To pass in a carriage; as, he drove to London. This phrase is elliptical. He drove his horses or carriage to London.
4. To aim at or tend to; to urge toward a point; to make an effort to reach or obtain; as, we know the end the author is driving at.
5. To aim a blow; to strike at with force. Four rogues in buckram let drive at me. – Shak. Drive, in all its senses, implies forcible or violent action. It is opposed 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 forward of the body.

1. To impel or urge forward by force; to force; to move by physical force. We drive a nail into wood with a hammer; the wind or a current drives a ship on the ocean.
2. To compel or urge forward by other means than absolute physical force, or by means that compel the will; as, to drive cattle to market. A smoke drives company from the room. A man may be driven by the necessities of the times, to abandon his country. Drive thy business; let not thy business drive thee. – Franklin.
3. To chase; to hunt. To drive the deer with hound and horn. – Chevy Chase.
4. To impel a team of horses or oxen to move forward, and to direct their course; hence, to guide or regulate the course of the carriage drawn by them. We say, to drive a team, or to drive a carriage drawn by a team.
5. To impel to greater speed.
6. To clear any place by forcing away what is in it. To drive the country, force the swains away. – Dryden.
7. To force; to compel; in a general sense.
8. To hurry on inconsiderately; often with on. In this sense it is more generally intransitive.
9. To distress; to straighten; as, desperate men far driven. – Spenser.
10. To impel by the influence of passion. Anger and lust often drive men into gross crimes.
11. To urge; to press; as, to drive an argument.
12. To impel by moral influence; to compel; as, the reasoning of his opponent drove him to acknowledge his error.
13. To carry on; to prosecute; to keep in motion; as, to drive a trade; to drive business.
14. To make light by motion or agitation; as, to drive feathers. His thrice driven bed of down. – Shak. The sense is probably to beat; but I do not recollect this application of the word in America. To drive away, to force to remove to a distance; to expel; to dispel; to scatter. To drive off, to compel to remove from a place; to expel; to drive to a distance. To drive out, to expel.

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 rush and press with violence; to move furiously.
   
   

   Fierce Boreas drove against his flying sails. Dryden.

   Under cover of the night and a driving tempest. Prescott.

   Time driveth onward fast,
   And in a little while our lips are dumb. Tennyson.

3. Driven.
   
   
   [Obs.] Chaucer.
4. The act of driving; a trip or an excursion in a carriage, as for exercise or pleasure; -- distinguished from a ride taken on horseback.
5. To make a drive, or stroke from the tee.
6. Specif., in various games, as tennis, baseball, etc., to propel (the ball) swiftly by a direct stroke or forcible throw.
7. In various games, as tennis, cricket, etc., the act of player who drives the ball; the stroke or blow; the flight of the ball, etc., so driven.
8. 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.

9. To be forced along; to be impelled; to be moved by any physical force or agent; to be driven.
   
   

   The hull drives on, though mast and sail be torn. Byron.

   The chaise drives to Mr. Draper's chambers. Thackeray.

10. A place suitable or agreeable for driving; a road prepared for driving.
11. A stroke from the tee, generally a full shot made with a driver; also, the distance covered by such a stroke.
12. 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.

13. To go by carriage; to pass in a carriage; to proceed by directing or urging on a vehicle or the animals that draw it; as, the coachman drove to my door.
14. Violent or rapid motion; a rushing onward or away; esp., a forced or hurried dispatch of business.
    
    

    The Murdstonian drive in business. M. Arnold.

15. An implement used for driving;
    
    
    as: (a)
16. 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.

17. To press forward; to aim, or tend, to a point; to make an effort; to strive; -- usually with at.
    
    

    Let them therefore declare what carnal or secular interest he drove at. South.

18. In type founding and forging, an impression or matrix, formed by a punch drift.
19. To clear, by forcing away what is contained.
    
    

    To drive the country, force the swains away. Dryden.

20. To distrain for rent.
    
    
    [Obs.]

    To let drive, to aim a blow; to strike with force; to attack. "Four rogues in buckram let drive at me." Shak.

21. A collection of objects that are driven; a mass of logs to be floated down a river.
    
    
    [Colloq.]

    Syn. -- See Ride.

22. To dig Horizontally; to cut a horizontal gallery or tunnel.
    
    
    Tomlinson.
23. To pass away; -- said of time.
    
    
    [Obs.] Chaucer.

    * 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.