He's droving now with Conroy's sheep along the
Castlereagh. --Paterson.
2. To finish, as stone, with a drove or drove chisel.
A storm came on and drove them into Pylos. --Jowett
(Thucyd. ).
Shield pressed on shield, and man drove man along.
--Pope.
Go drive the deer and drag the finny prey. --Pope.
2. To urge on and direct the motions of, as the beasts which
draw a vehicle, or the vehicle borne by them; hence, also,
to take in a carriage; to convey in a vehicle drawn by
beasts; as, to drive a pair of horses or a stage; to drive
a person to his own door.
How . . . proud he was to drive such a brother!
--Thackeray.
3. To urge, impel, or hurry forward; to force; to constrain;
to urge, press, or bring to a point or state; as, to drive
a person by necessity, by persuasion, by force of
circumstances, by argument, and the like. `` Enough to
drive one mad.'' --Tennyson.
He, driven to dismount, threatened, if I did not do
the like, to do as much for my horse as fortune had
done for his. --Sir P.
Sidney.
4. To carry or; to keep in motion; to conduct; to prosecute.
[Now used only colloquially.] --Bacon.
The trade of life can not be driven without
partners. --Collier.
5. To clear, by forcing away what is contained.
To drive the country, force the swains away.
--Dryden.
6. (Mining) To dig Horizontally; to cut a horizontal gallery
or tunnel. --Tomlinson.
7. To pass away; -- said of time. [Obs.] --Chaucer.
Note: Drive, in all its senses, implies forcible or violent
action. It is the reverse of to lead. To drive a body
is to move it by applying a force behind; to lead is to
cause to move by applying the force before, or in
front. It takes a variety of meanings, according to the
objects by which it is followed; as, to drive an
engine, to direct and regulate its motions; to drive
logs, to keep them in the current of a river and direct
them in their course; to drive feathers or down, to
place them in a machine, which, by a current of air,
drives off the lightest to one end, and collects them
by themselves. ``My thrice-driven bed of down.''
--Shak.
2. Any collection of irrational animals, moving or driving
forward; as, a finny drove. --Milton.
3. A crowd of people in motion.
Where droves, as at a city gate, may pass. --Dryden.
4. A road for driving cattle; a driftway. [Eng.]
5. (Agric.) A narrow drain or channel used in the irrigation
of land. --Simmonds.
6. (Masonry)
(a) A broad chisel used to bring stone to a nearly smooth
surface; -- called also {drove chisel}.
(b) The grooved surface of stone finished by the drove
chisel; -- called also {drove work}.