Drive Drove Driving Driven I Make Force Draɪv

• can you drive?
• don't drive so fast!
• i drove to work this morning.
• shall we drive (= go there by car) or go by train?

drive

Verb Forms

1. to operate a vehicle so that it goes in a particular direction
• SEE ALSO fly-drive
  https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/fly-drive_2
• Can you drive?
• Don't drive so fast!
• I drove to work this morning.
• Shall we drive (= go there by car) or go by train?
• to drive a car/vehicle/truck/bus
• He drives a taxi (= that is his job).

Extra Examples

• He was arrested for driving recklessly.
• She drove quickly back to the office.
• We drove from Quebec to Ottawa.
• We must have driven over 600 kilometres today.
• Driving lessons can be expensive.
• We drove the rest of the way in silence.
• Have you ever driven a racing car?
• I learned to drive when I was 25.
• They run a driving school in Birmingham.
• Be sure not to drink and drive (= drive when you have drunk alcohol).
• a ban on texting and driving
• to drive home/north
• to drive safely
2. to take somebody somewhere in a car, taxi, etc.
• Could you drive me home?
• My mother drove us to the airport.
• They were driven to an unknown place in the hills.
• I don't want to take the bus. Will you drive me?
3. to travel under the control of a driver
• A stream of black cars drove by.
• A car drove up to us and a man got out.
4. to own or use a particular type of vehicle
• What car do you drive?
• You need a special licence to drive a heavy goods vehicle.
5. to make somebody very angry, crazy, etc. or to make them do something extreme
• to drive somebody crazy/mad/nuts/insane
• Hunger drove her to steal.
• Those kids are driving me to despair.

Extra Examples

• The website was extremely slow, driving many users to distraction.
• The situation has become so desperate that many are driven to suicide.
• The destruction of the rainforest may drive certain species to extinction.
6. to force somebody to act in a particular way
• The urge to survive drove them on.
• You're driving yourself too hard.
• He was driven by the desire to understand how things work.
• The work is driven by the need for information sharing.
7. to provide the power that makes a machine work; to operate a device
• a steam-driven locomotive
• The interface can be used to drive a printer.
8. to force somebody/something to move in a particular direction
• to drive sheep into a field
• The enemy was driven back.
9. to influence something or cause it to make progress
• This is the main factor driving investment in the area.
• A key factor driving growth was the launch of convenient products.
• The dairy products market will also be driven by consumer demand.
10. to force something to go in a particular direction or into a particular position by pushing it, hitting it, etc.
• to drive a nail into a piece of wood

Extra Examples

• He took a wooden peg and drove it into the ground.
• The knife had been driven through his heart.
11. to make an opening in or through something by using force
• They drove a tunnel through the solid rock.
12. to hit a ball with force, sending it forward
• to drive the ball into the rough (= in golf)
13. to carry something along
• Huge waves drove the yacht onto the rocks.
14. to fall or move rapidly and with great force
• The waves drove against the shore.
15. extremely clean, pure, etc.
16. to cause something to fail, for example a plan
17. to argue in an aggressive way and force somebody to agree on the best possible price or arrangement
18. to make somebody understand or accept something by saying it often, loudly, angrily, etc.
• You will really need to drive your point home.
19. to make somebody so worried, annoyed or upset that they lose control of their behaviour, especially by drinking too much alcohol
• The stress drove her to drink and put a strain on her marriage.
• Dragging kids through airports is enough to drive you to drink.
20. to make two people start disliking each other
• I don't want to drive a wedge between the two of you.
• This was just one of the issues that drove a wedge between them.
21. to work so hard that you become extremely tired
22. the thing somebody is trying to say
• I wish I knew what they were driving at.

Word Origin

• Old English drīfan ‘urge (a person or animal) to go forward’, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch drijven and German treiben.