driven

1. 1
   past formverb

   Past participle of drive.

   By midnight the storm had driven everyone indoors.

   The herd was driven across the river by experienced hands.

   UsageUse with have or be: had driven, was driven (not incorrect: had drove). On its own, use drove.

   Note

   Its range runs from steering a car or a horse-drawn cart to forcing animals onward, and that sense of forceful pushing is the one the adjectives grow from.

2. 2
   ambitiousadjective

   Powerfully motivated to succeed, often to the point of obsession.

   Like an engine that never idles, always pushing toward the next goal.

   The young entrepreneur was so driven that she rarely took a day off.

   Driven athletes train through pain that would stop most people.

   UsageCan be praise or a mild warning, as in so driven she never rests.

   Similarambitious, motivated, determined, single-minded

   Oppositeunmotivated, apathetic, unambitious

   Note

   Here the push that the verb applies from outside has moved inside a person. The participle (drive + -n) has become a word for character. As a true adjective it grades: more driven, most driven, so driven she rarely rests.

3. 3
   blown snowadjective

   Of snow, heaped into drifts by the action of the wind.

   Like dunes shaped by desert wind, but made of snow.

   By morning, driven snow had buried the fence along the north side of the barn.

   The hikers struggled across a field of driven snow piled chest-high.

   UsageMostly in driven snow, and in as pure as the driven snow, meaning very innocent (often said with irony).

   Note

   The wind does the driving here. It pushes the snow onward by force, as a drover pushes cattle, and leaves it heaped where it stops. It shares its forceful origin with the ambitious sense, but here the pressure is weather, not will.

Showing meanings only. Show all 3