I. drive 1 S1 W1 /draɪv/ BrE AmE verb ( past tense drove /drəʊv $ droʊv/, past participle driven /ˈdrɪv ə n/)
[ Word Family: noun : ↑ drive , ↑ driver , ↑ driving ; verb : ↑ drive ; adjective : ↑ driving ]
[ Language: Old English ; Origin: drifan ]
1 . VEHICLE
a) [intransitive and transitive] to make a car, truck, bus etc move along
drive to/down/off etc
I am planning to drive to Morocco next year.
the man driving the car
Can you drive?
So when did you learn to drive?
Bye! Drive carefully!
He drives 12 miles to work.
He drives (=has) a BMW estate.
b) [intransitive always + adverb/preposition] if a car, truck etc drives somewhere, it moves there:
After the accident, the other car just drove off.
c) [intransitive] if people drive somewhere, they travel somewhere in a car:
Shall we drive or take the bus?
drive to/down/off etc
They drove back to Woodside.
d) [transitive always + adverb/preposition] to take someone somewhere in a car, truck etc:
She drove Anna to London.
I’ll drive you home.
drive yourself
I drove myself to hospital.
2 . MAKE SOMEBODY MOVE [transitive] to force a person or animal to go somewhere:
Torrential rain drove the players off the course.
With a few loud whistles, they drove the donkeys out of the enclosure.
3 . MAKE SOMEBODY DO SOMETHING [transitive] to strongly influence someone to do something
drive somebody to do something
The detective wondered what had driven Christine to phone her.
drive somebody to/into something
The noises in my head have nearly driven me to suicide.
Phil, driven by jealousy, started spying on his wife.
4 . MAKE SOMEBODY/SOMETHING BE IN A BAD STATE [transitive] to make someone or something get into a bad or extreme state, usually an emotional one
drive somebody crazy/nuts/mad/insane (=make someone feel very annoyed)
This cough is driving me mad!
drive somebody crazy/wild (=make someone feel very sexually excited)
drive somebody up the wall/out of their mind (=make someone feel very annoyed)
drive somebody to distraction/desperation
The mosquitoes drive me to distraction.
drive somebody/something into something
The factory had been driven into bankruptcy.
5 . HIT/PUSH SOMETHING INTO SOMETHING [transitive] to hit or push something into something else
drive something into something
We watched Dad drive the posts into the ground.
She drove her heels into the sand.
6 . MAKE SOMEBODY WORK [transitive] to make a person or animal work hard
drive yourself
Don’t drive yourself too hard.
7 . SPORTS [intransitive and transitive]
a) to move a ball etc forward in a game of baseball, football, golf etc by hitting or kicking it hard and fast:
He drove the ball into the corner of the net.
b) to run with the ball towards the ↑ goal in sports such as ↑ basketball and American football
8 . PROVIDE POWER [transitive] to provide the power for a vehicle or machine
petrol-driven/electrically-driven/battery-driven etc
a petrol-driven lawn mower
9 . RAIN/WIND ETC [intransitive always + adverb/preposition] if rain, snow, wind etc drives somewhere, it moves very quickly in that direction:
The rain was driving down hard.
10 . drive a coach and horses through something to destroy an argument, plan etc completely:
The new bill will drive a coach and horses through recent trade agreements.
11 . MAKE A HOLE [transitive always + adverb/preposition] to make a large hole in something using heavy equipment or machinery:
They drove a tunnel through the mountains.
12 . drive something home to make something completely clear to someone:
He didn’t have to drive the point home. The videotape had done that.
13 . drive a wedge between somebody to do something that makes people disagree or start to dislike each other:
I don’t want to drive a wedge between you and your father.
⇨ drive/strike a hard bargain at ↑ hard 1 (18)
• • •
COLLOCATIONS (for Meaning 4)
■ phrases
▪ drive somebody crazy/mad/insane spoken ( also drive somebody nuts spoken informal ) (=make someone feel very annoyed)
The continuous noise was driving me crazy.
▪ drive somebody crazy/wild (=make someone feel very sexually excited)
He drives women wild.
▪ drive somebody up the wall/round the bend/out of their mind spoken informal (=make someone feel very annoyed)
That voice of hers drives me up the wall.
▪ drive somebody to distraction (=make someone feel very upset or annoyed)
She was being driven to distraction by her husband’s bad habits.
▪ drive somebody to despair/desperation (=make someone despair)
Escalating personal debts have driven many people to despair.
▪ drive somebody to drink (=make someone so annoyed or upset that they depend on alcohol)
His problems had almost driven him to drink.
drive at something phrasal verb
what somebody is driving at the thing someone is really trying to say SYN get at :
I still couldn’t understand what Toby was driving at.
drive somebody ↔ away phrasal verb
to behave in a way that makes someone leave:
He was cruel because he wanted to drive me away.
drive something ↔ down phrasal verb
to make prices, costs etc fall quickly:
We have to drive down costs.
drive somebody/something ↔ in phrasal verb
to hit the ball so that another player can score a ↑ run in baseball
drive off phrasal verb
1 . to hit the ball to begin a game of golf
2 . drive somebody ↔ off to force a person or animal to go away from you:
We keep dogs in the yard to drive off intruders.
drive somebody/something ↔ out phrasal verb
1 . to force someone or something to leave:
Downtown stores are being driven out by crime.
2 . written to make something stop existing:
As we went forward, our fear was driven out by horror.
drive something ↔ up phrasal verb
to make prices, costs etc rise quickly:
The oil shortage drove gas prices up by 20 cents a gallon.
II. drive 2 S2 W2 BrE AmE noun
[ Word Family: noun : ↑ drive , ↑ driver , ↑ driving ; verb : ↑ drive ; adjective : ↑ driving ]
1 . IN A CAR [countable] a journey in a car
drive to/along etc
Let’s go for a drive along the coast.
Taylor took me for a drive through the town.
an hour’s/a two hour etc drive
It’s a two hour drive from Calais to Thiepval.
2 . NATURAL NEED [countable] a strong natural need or desire:
The treatment will not affect your sex drive.
3 . OUTSIDE YOUR HOUSE [countable] the hard area or road between your house and the street SYN driveway
in/on the drive
He parked his car in the drive.
4 . EFFORT [countable] an effort to achieve something, especially an effort by an organization for a particular purpose:
a recruitment drive for new members
an economy drive (=effort to reduce spending)
drive to do something
a nationwide drive to crack down on crime
5 . DETERMINATION [uncountable] determination and energy to succeed:
Brian has got tremendous drive.
6 . POWER [uncountable] the power from an engine that makes the wheels of a vehicle go round
front-wheel/rear-wheel/four-wheel drive
7 . COMPUTER [countable] a piece of equipment in a computer that is used to get information from a ↑ disk or to store information on it
hard/floppy/A etc drive ⇨ ↑ disk drive
8 . SPORT [countable] an act of hitting a ball hard, especially in tennis, baseball, or golf:
He hit a long, high drive to right field.
9 . MILITARY ATTACK [countable] several military attacks
drive into
a drive deep into enemy territory
10 . ANIMALS [countable] when animals such as cows or sheep are brought together and made to move in a particular direction
11 . Drive used in the names of roads:
141 Park Drive