drove

Meanings

1. A cattle drive or the herd being driven by it; thus, a number of cattle driven to market or new pastures.
2. A large number of people on the move.
3. A group of hares.
4. A road or track along which cattle are habitually, used to be or could be driven; a droveway.
5. A narrow drain or channel used in the irrigation of land.
6. A broad chisel used to bring stone to a nearly smooth surface.
7. The grooved surface of stone finished by the drove chisel.

1. simple past of drive
2. past participle of drive

1. To herd cattle; particularly over a long distance.
2. To finish (stone) with a drove chisel.

Etymology

From Middle English drove, drof, draf, from Old English drāf (“action of driving; a driving out, expulsion; drove, herd, band; company, band; road along which cattle are driven”), from Proto-Germanic *draibō (“a drive, push, movement, drove”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰreybʰ- (“to drive, push”). Cognate with Scots drave, dreef (“drove, crowd”), Dutch dreef (“a walkway, wide road with trees, drove”), Middle High German treip (“a drove”), Swedish drev (“a drive, drove”), Icelandic dreif (“a scattering, distribution”). More at drive.