drive meaning
- Operate or control a vehicle
"drive a car or bus"; "Can you drive this four-wheel truck?" - Travel or be transported in a vehicle
"We drove to the university every morning"
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- The act of applying force to propel something
"after reaching the desired velocity the drive is cut off"
- thrust, driving force - A mechanism by which force or power is transmitted in a machine
"a variable speed drive permitted operation through a range of speeds" - A series of actions advancing a principle or tending toward a particular end
"the team was ready for a drive toward the pennant"
- campaign, cause, crusade, movement, effort - A road leading up to a private house
- driveway, private road - The trait of being highly motivated
"his drive and energy exhausted his co-workers" - Hitting a golf ball off of a tee with a driver
"he sliced his drive out of bounds"
- driving - The act of driving a herd of animals overland
- A journey in a vehicle (usually an automobile)
"he took the family for a drive in his new car"
- ride - A physiological state corresponding to a strong need or desire
- (computer science) a device that writes data onto or reads data from a storage medium
- A wide scenic road planted with trees
"the riverside drive offers many exciting scenic views"
- parkway [N. Amer] - (sports) a hard straight return (as in tennis or squash)
Derived forms: drives, driven, driving, drove
See also: drift, drive in, drive out, driver, driving
Type of: actuation, coerce, control, conveyance, cover, cross, cut across, cut through, device, dig, displace, do work, excavate, fight, force, get across, get over, go, golf shot, golf stroke, hale [archaic], hit, hollow, hunt, hunt down, impel, intend, journey, journeying, locomote, make, mean, mechanism, move, operate, pass over, physical condition, physiological condition, physiological state, power, pressure, propel, propulsion, push, return, road, route, run, squeeze, struggle, swing, throw, thrust, track, track down, trait, transfer, transferral, transport, transportation, travel, traverse, venture, work
Encyclopedia: Drive Drive, He Said
[Business]
verb, noun
■ verb [+ obj] (drove /; AmE / driven //)
1 (often be driven)
to cause sth; to be the main influence on sth:
Our products are driven by customers' needs.
Consumer spending has been the driving force behind the economy.
She seems to know what drives people to want to excel at their job.
⇨ -DRIVEN (1)
2 drive sth (forward)
to make sth grow stronger, develop or progress:
Exports have helped to drive economic growth.
Profits rose 38 per cent, driven by strong sales in Asia.
His investments put him in a good position to drive forward the merger of the two firms.
Senior management needs to drive the process of organizational change.
We plan to drive the business to profitability by the end of the year.
3 (used with an adverb or a preposition)
to force a price, figure, etc. to go up or down or move to a particular level:
The conflict is driving oil prices higher.
Management is under pressure to drive down costs.
The economy is being driven deeper into recession.
The government has succeeded in driving inflation to a 30-year low.
The price of energy has been driven below the point at which it can be produced economically.
4
to force sb to act in a particular way:
Fears about unemployment drove consumers to cut back on spending.
You're driving yourself too hard (= you're making yourself work too much).
Advertising has helped to drive customers to our website.
IDIOMS
be in the driving seat (also be in the driver's seat)
to be the person in control of a situation:
The workshop will put you firmly in the driving seat of change in your company.
Shareholders are going to be in the driving seat to ensure directors' pay meets company performance targets.
GROUND noun, GROUND noun, HARD adj.
PHRASAL VERBS
drive sb/sth out (of sth)
to make sb/sth disappear or stop doing sth:
The supermarkets are driving small shopkeepers out of business.
New fashions drive out old ones.
■ noun [C]
DISK DRIVE, ECONOMY DRIVE, FLASH DRIVE, HARD DRIVE, SALES DRIVE, TAPE DRIVE, TEST DRIVE
1
an organized effort by a group of people to achieve sth:
They cut their staff by 400 in a drive to reduce costs.
a drive for greater efficiency
a cost-cutting/marketing/recruitment drive
2 (IT )
the part of a computer that reads and stores information on disks or tapes:
a CD-ROM drive
a DVD drive
[Electronics]
1. To excite (i.e., to supply with input-signal current, power, or voltage) (see DRIVING CURRENT, DRIVING POWER, and DRIVING VOLT-
AGE).
2. Input-signal excitation (see DRIVING CURRENT, DRIVING POWER, and DRIVING VOLTAGE).
3. A device that moves a recording medium (e.g., tape drive and diskette drive).
4. The transmission of mechanical energy from one place to another (e.g., motor drive).
drive array A set of two or more hard-disk drives in a computer system. They function together to minimize the possibility of data loss. Such a system can also increase the amount of fast-access data storage.
[Medicine]
A state of internal activity of an organism that is a necessary condition before a given stimulus will elicit a class of responses; e.g.,a certain level of hunger (drive) must be present before food will elicit an eating response. n
1 : an urgent, basic, or instinctual need : a motivating physiological condition of the organism ‹a sexual drive›
2 : an impelling culturally acquired concern, interest, or longing ‹a drive for perfection›
[Sports]
Basketball
A quick dribble directly to the basket in an effort to score.
An attacking move at full speed.
Examples
More: Next- when are you taking your driving test?
- be particularly careful when driving at night.
- they are watching landry drive toby.
- his knowledge merely drives him to madness.
- reckless driving may lose you even your life.
