drive
Meanings
- To operate a vehicle:
- To operate (a wheeled motorized vehicle).
- To travel by operating a wheeled motorized vehicle.
- To convey (a person, etc.) in a wheeled motorized vehicle.
- To operate (an aircraft); to pilot.
- To direct a vehicle powered by a horse, ox or similar animal.
- To compel to move:
- (especially of animals) To impel or urge onward by force; to push forward; to compel to move on.
- (especially animals) To cause to flee out of.
- To cause to move by the application of physical force:
- To provide an impetus for motion or other physical change, to move an object by means of the provision of force thereto.
- To cause (a mechanism) to operate.
- Planned, usually long-lasting, effort to achieve something; ability coupled with ambition, determination, and motivation.
- Violent or rapid motion; a rushing onward or away; (especially) a forced or hurried dispatch of business.
- An act of driving (prompting) animals forward.
- An act of driving game animals forward, to be captured or hunted.
- An act of driving livestock animals forward, to transport a herd.
- A sustained advance in the face of the enemy to take an objective.
- A mechanism used to power or give motion to a vehicle or other machine or machine part.
- A trip made in a vehicle (now generally in a motor vehicle).
- A driveway.
- A type of public roadway.
- The gear into which one usually shifts an automatic transmission when one is driving a car or truck. (Denoted with symbol D on a shifter's labeling.)
- A place suitable or agreeable for driving; a road prepared for driving.
Pronunciation
Word forms
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *dʰreybʰ-der. Proto-Germanic *drībaną Proto-West Germanic *drīban Old English drīfan Middle English driven English drive 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”). Cognates Cognate with Scots drive (“to drive”), Yola dhreeve, dhrive, dreeve, drieve, drive (“to drive”), North Frisian driiv, driiw, driwe (“to drive”), West Frisian driuwe (“to drive; to float”), Alemannic German triibe (“to drive”), Dutch drijven (“to drive, push”), German treiben (“to drive, push, propel”), Low German drieven (“to drive, drift, push”), Luxembourgish dreiwen (“to drive, propel”), Yiddish טרײַבן (traybn, “to drive”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål drive (“to drive, propel”), Icelandic drífa (“to drive”), Norwegian Nynorsk driva, drive (“to drive, move; to propel; to run”), Swedish driva (“to drive, compel; to drift; to run”), Gothic 𐌳𐍂𐌴𐌹𐌱𐌰𐌽 (dreiban, “to drive”).