DRIVE-BY

noun Plural drive-bys (People and Society) In the US, a criminal act (usually a shooting) carried out from a moving vehicle. Also known more fully as a drive-by shooting. Etymology: Formed by dropping the word shooting from drive-by shooting and treating what remains as a noun. History and Usage: The drive-by represents a reappearance in American crime of the gang-led murder carried out from a moving car, something which many would associate with the twenties rather than the eighties. In its new manifestation in the late eighties and early nineties it is particularly associated with rival teenage gangs, but the gun is often shot randomly into a crowd, endangering innocent passers-by as well as the gang targets. The task force suggested increased penalties for drive-by shootings and other gang-related homicides, and for the possession and sale of controlled substances, including phencyclidine. New Yorker 3 Nov. 1986, p. 128 In Chicago, 'drive-bys' contributed to a 22 per cent leap in the youth murder rate last year. The Times 7 Feb. 1990, p. 10