drive

DRYV/dɹaɪv/

Verbdrives, driving, drove, driven

Noun pluraldrives

43 meanings of drive

Practice

1
verbtransitive
To operate and control a motor vehicle, or to travel somewhere in one that you are controlling.
He drives an electric sedan to reduce his fuel costs.
Volunteers drive the shuttle bus between the two campuses.
UsageYou usually drive a car but ride a bike. The car can be the subject: it drives smoothly.
Similaroperate
2
car tripnouncountable
A journey made in a vehicle, now usually a motor vehicle.
They enjoyed a leisurely drive along the coastal highway.
Our morning drive to the airport was slowed by heavy traffic.
UsageCommon phrases: go for a drive, take a drive. Distance can be a two-hour drive or an hour's drive away.
Similartrip, ride, spin
Note
Carriages came first. In Wilkie Collins's The Woman in White (1860), the party climbs into an open carriage "for our promised drive", and the word meant a pleasure outing as much as a journey. Motor cars inherited it along with that flavor, so a drive, like a spin, can still be an end in itself rather than a way of getting somewhere.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 5 facts
The noun drive was used for carriage journeys before motor-car journeys. gutenberg.org
Wilkie Collins wrote The Woman in White. wilkiecollinssociety.org
The first book edition appeared in 1860. Serialization began in 1859. en.wikisource.org
The party enters an open carriage, and the text contains the exact phrase for our promised drive. gutenberg.org
The historical carriage outing has a pleasurable, social character. gutenberg.org
3
transportverbtransitive
To transport a person or thing in a wheeled motorized vehicle.
He drives his elderly neighbor to her appointments each week.
We need someone to drive the team to the tournament.
UsageOften drive someone to a place or drive someone home.
Similartake
4
nouncountable
A device that stores data or reads and writes data on a storage medium such as a hard disk, solid-state memory, or optical disc.
The technician replaced the failing drive before any data was lost.
Cloud backups protect your files even if the drive stops working.
UsageUsually hard drive, USB drive or solid-state drive; files are saved on a drive.
Similardisk
Note
In a hard disk or solid-state drive, the medium and the mechanism come built into one unit, so people speak of the drive failing when what they mean is that their stored data is at risk. An optical drive, by contrast, takes removable discs.
5
verbtransitive
To press or push something toward a particular point, level, or state.
Speculation can drive prices to absurd heights.
Lawyers drove the case to a swift settlement.
UsageOften drive prices up or down. Drive through a reform means push it past resistance.
Similarpush, force, propel, steer
Note
To drive through a reform is to push it past resistance until it is adopted, as when Nigel Harris, writing in RAIL in 2022, called for people to "drive through urgently needed fares reform".
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
Nigel Harris wrote the cited passage in RAIL in 2022. en.wiktionary.org
The passage contains the exact quoted wording about fares reform. en.wiktionary.org
6
verbtransitive
To strongly motivate, push or pressure someone to act in a particular way.
A desire for recognition drives many young entrepreneurs.
Curiosity can drive researchers to spend years on a single problem.
UsageOften drive someone to do something. Someone very ambitious is driven.
Similarmotivate, push, spur, impel, propel
7
verbtransitive
To force or cause someone or something into a particular state or situation.
The endless paperwork drove her to despair.
Such pressure can drive a calm person to distraction.
UsageTwo patterns: drive someone crazy or mad, and drive someone to despair.
Similarpush, reduce, bring, force
Note
Tennyson's Maud (1855) has "enough to drive one mad," and the pattern is unchanged today. Make and render are neutral; drive adds the feeling of being pushed there against one's will.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
Alfred Tennyson wrote Maud, first published in 1855. en.wikisource.org
Maud contains the exact words “enough to drive one mad”. en.wikisource.org
8
verbtransitive
To urge animals or people onward by force, pushing or compelling them to move.
Herders drive their flocks down from the mountains before winter.
Soldiers drove the prisoners ahead of them along the road.
UsageUsually with a direction: drive sheep out of a field, drive cattle to market.
Similarherd, goad
Note
No steering wheel is involved in the sense closest to the Old English word. Drīfan meant "to drive, force, move", from a root for pushing, and herders still drive animals in that way, from behind: sheep out of a field, herds of thousands of cattle from Texas to the Kansas railheads.
9
power a machineverbtransitive
To cause a mechanism to operate by supplying it with power or motion.
A small electric motor drives the belt that carries boxes across the warehouse floor.
Two electric motors drive the pump in this system.
Similaroperate, move
10
power systemnouncountable or uncountable
A mechanism that powers or transmits motion to a vehicle, machine, or machine part.
Engineers upgraded the drive to handle the heavier load.
The conveyor's drive failed, halting the entire production line.
UsageUsually after a word for the power or its path: chain drive, front-wheel drive, four-wheel drive.
Similarengine, gear
Note
The compound often carries the real information. A car's front-wheel drive tells you which wheels the engine turns, not what kind of engine it has.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
Front-wheel drive identifies the wheels receiving engine power, rather than the kind of engine. eia.gov
11
public roadnouncountable
A public roadway, especially a wide, scenic, or residential street used as a thoroughfare.
Shops and cafés line the busy drive that runs along the river.
The city widened the lakeshore drive last year, adding bike lanes and new streetlights along the water.
UsageMostly in street names, capitalized like Street or Avenue: Rodeo Drive.
Similarroad, street, avenue, boulevard
12
ambitionnoununcountable
The energy, determination, and ambition that make someone work hard and persistently to achieve a goal.
His relentless drive turned a small shop into a national chain.
The team lacked the drive needed to reach the finals.
UsageUsually without a: she has drive, the team lacked drive. A sex drive is a different, inborn urge.
Similarambition, motivation, grit, verve
Oppositelaziness, inertia, sloth
13
urgenouncountable
An innate desire or interest that prompts a person or animal to act.
The sex drive is one of the most studied human motivations.
Psychologists distinguish between biological drives and learned desires.
UsageOften in sex drive; psychologists also speak of basic drives such as hunger.
Similardesire, urge, impulse, impetus
Note
Technically, a drive is a state of arousal that a physiological or psychological need produces, and that behavior then works to reduce: the need pushes, the organism acts, and the push fades once the need is met. Desire, impulse and urge are its everyday neighbors.
14
verbtransitive
To set something in motion or change it physically by applying force to it.
It took three hard swings to drive the nail into the old oak beam.
The gusty wind drove dry leaves across the empty parking lot.
UsageUsually with a direction: drive a nail into a beam, drive leaves across a road.
Similarpush, force
15
nouncountable
An organized campaign to achieve a goal, such as raising money, collecting goods, increasing sales, or promoting a cause.
Volunteers organized a coat drive before the cold season began.
The annual blood drive drew donors from across the county.
UsageUsually after the thing collected or the aim: a coat drive, a blood drive, a fund-raising drive.
Note
Older names such as whist drive and beetle drive work differently. They put the activity in front instead, naming a social gathering organized around a game, with the event itself often raising money for a cause.
16
verbtransitive
To carry on or keep an activity in motion; to conduct or pursue it.
Market sellers in the old town drive a hard bargain, so tourists rarely pay the first price they hear.
Street vendors drove a brisk trade in umbrellas once the storm broke.
UsageMostly in set phrases: drive a hard bargain, drive a brisk trade.
Similarpursue, continue
17
verbintransitive
In cricket, tennis, or baseball, to strike the ball with force by playing the stroke known as a drive.
Leaning into the shot, the opener drove crisply through the covers for four.
On slow clay courts she prefers to drive from well behind the baseline.
Note
The stroke behind this verb looks different in each game that uses it. A cricketer swings the bat in a vertical arc through the line of the ball and usually keeps it on the ground, mostly between cover and midwicket. A tennis player hits a firm groundstroke, forehand or backhand. A baseball hitter sends the ball hard and on a line. The verb usually stands alone, followed by where the ball went: drove through the covers.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts
This describes the usual technique, but square drives use a horizontal bat, and lofted drives send the ball into the air. en.wikipedia.org
A tennis drive can be a groundstroke. netgeneration.usta.com
Tennis drives can be played forehand or backhand. web.uvic.ca
A baseball line drive travels sharply and directly from the bat. img.mlbstatic.com
18
nouncountable
The act or an instance of urging livestock forward as a group so as to move the herd from one place to another.
Every spring the ranch hires extra riders for the drive up to summer pasture.
Her grandfather still talks about the long cattle drives of his youth.
UsageOften a cattle drive.
Similardrove
Note
Where a hunting drive pushes wild animals toward capture, this one has a destination, and the herd is being moved, not cornered.

Less common meanings

19
forward gearnoununcountable
The gear setting on an automatic transmission, marked D, used for normal forward driving.
He moved the lever from park to drive and eased forward.
Leave the transmission in drive while waiting at the light.
UsageUsually in drive, with no a or the: put the car in drive.
Oppositereverse
Note
On the selector it appears simply as D. It is the position where most ordinary driving happens, so the lower gears are the exceptions chosen for particular conditions.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
The normal automatic-transmission driving position is marked D. techinfo.toyota.com
20
private roadnouncountable
A private road or paved path leading from the street to a house or garage.
The taxi waited at the bottom of the drive.
They repaved the drive after years of cracking.
UsageAlso called a driveway; a car is parked in or on the drive, or goes up or down the drive.
Similardriveway, approach
Note
The private kind of road, typically belonging to a mansion or institutional grounds and described as long or tree-lined. The American novelist Winston Churchill's The Celebrity (1897) has a station wagon "rolling rapidly down the long drive".
21
football possessionnouncountable
In American football, an offensive possession made up of several plays that often moves the team toward a scoring opportunity.
The quarterback led a 90-yard drive to tie the score.
Their opening drive ended in a missed field goal.
Note
The basic unit of an American football game's story. Commentators measure a drive in yards and plays, and a team that puts one together is said to drive down the field. It belongs to the offense, beginning when a team gains possession and ending with a score, loss of possession, or the end of the half or game.
22
verbintransitive
To move forward with force or strong momentum.
Sleet drove hard across the open field.
The runners drive toward the finish in the final lap.
UsageUsually followed by a direction: sleet drove across the field. Hard, wind-blown rain is driving rain.
Similarsurge, push, charge
Note
Here the subject does the moving and there is no object to push: "Pyrrhus at Priam drives" in Shakespeare's Hamlet, and Boreas "drove against his flying Sails" in Dryden's Virgil of 1697. The present participle has hardened into an adjective for weather, as in "a driving tempest" in Prescott's History of the Reign of Philip the Second (1855).
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 5 facts
The quotation occurs in Shakespeare's Hamlet; its speaker is the First Player. folgerdigitaltexts.org
Boreas is the subject of the quoted wording in Dryden's translation of Virgil's Aeneid. luminarium.org
Dryden's translation of Virgil was first published in 1697. openbook.lib.utah.edu
Prescott uses the phrase "a driving tempest" in History of the Reign of Philip the Second. gutenberg.org
The work's first volume was published in 1855. upload.wikimedia.org
23
nouncountable
A hard, powerful shot that sends the ball fast and far, such as a long golf stroke from the tee or a hard, low shot in soccer, tennis or cricket.
A booming drive left her just short of the green.
His drive sliced badly and ended up in the trees.
Note
Golf names the club after its action. A driver is the longest-hitting club, used chiefly from the tee to get distance at the start of a hole, and any shot played with it is a drive. The matching verb, to drive the ball, simply means to play one.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 2 facts
The derivation runs from drive to driver: the club is named for its action. jga-golfpedia.jp
A driver is designed to hit the ball farther than other clubs. en.wikipedia.org
24
rush to finishnouncountable
Forceful, headlong movement, as in a rush onward or away; especially, the hurried pushing through of business.
The lawmakers ended the session with a late-night drive to push the budget bill through before the holiday.
The whole office was caught up in the year-end drive to close every open account before the books were shut.
Similarforce, momentum, rush, pace
25
army advancenouncountable
A sustained military advance against the enemy aimed at capturing an objective.
The general ordered a drive toward the river crossing at dawn.
The spring drive broke through the enemy's defensive line.
UsageOften a drive on or toward a place: Napoleon's drive on Moscow.
Similarpush, attack
Oppositeretreat
Note
The word stresses sustained momentum over a single blow, which is why push is its closest synonym.
26
verbslang
To be at the controls of an aircraft and fly it.
27
verb
To steer a cart, wagon or carriage pulled by horses or other draft animals.
28
verb
To make animals or people flee from a place by frightening or forcing them.
29
verb
To sort feathers or down by blowing air through them so the lighter pieces are carried apart from the heavier ones.
30
verb
To push someone or something out of its place by force, literally or figuratively.
31
verb
To be pushed along forcefully, most often said of a ship driven by wind or current.
32
verb
To clear a place by forcing out the people, animals or things in it.
33
verb
To dig a level passage or tunnel underground.
34
verb
To move the ball steadily down the field through a series of attacking plays.
35
verbobsolete
To seize a tenant's goods or livestock to make up for unpaid rent.
36
verb
To be the one in charge, setting the pace, during sex.
37
noun
A hunt in which game is chased toward waiting hunters or nets.
38
noundated
A road or route built or chosen for pleasure driving.
39
noun
A ball hit hard so that it travels low and fairly straight.
40
noun
A stroke made with a straight, swinging bat that sends the ball along the ground in front of the wicket.
41
noun
A shaped hollow pressed into metal by a punch or drift.
42
noun
A mass of things being moved along together, especially logs floated downriver to a mill.
43
nounslangUK
A friendly name people call a bus driver when speaking to them.

Practice

Can you tell the meanings of drive apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.

Origin

Old English drīfan, meaning "to force, move, drive," became Middle English driven. Its roots go back to Proto-Germanic *drībaną and the Proto-Indo-European root *dʰreybʰ- ("to drive, push"). Dutch drijven and German treiben ("to push, propel, drive") are related verbs.