drove
/dɹoʊv/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: 4.36 in modern English
9
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
1
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
The grooved surface of stone finished by the drove chisel.
verb
simple past of drive
Example Sentences
- "in droves"
- "The boy hunters had arrived at the wood grove, far off from the wary drove of hares, who resumed foraging cautiously, as before."
- "she and her companion got among a regular drove of hares"
- "The winner got amongst a drove of hares, and was run to a stand still."
- "I had occasion […] to make a somewhat long business trip to Chicago, and on my return […] I found Farrar awaiting me in the railway station. He smiled his wonted fraction by way of greeting, […], and finally leading me to his buggy, turned and drove out of town."
- "Iron and coal were the magnets that drew railways to this land of lovely valleys and silent mountains—for such it was a century-and-a-half ago, before man blackened the valleys with the smoke of his forges, scarred the green hills with his shafts and waste-heaps, and drove the salmon from the quiet Rhondda and the murmuring Taff."
Etymology
From Middle English drove, drof, draf, from Old English drāf (“action of driving; a driving out, expulsion; drove, herd, band; company, band; road along which cattle are driven”), from Proto-Germanic *draibō (“a drive, push, movement, drove”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰreybʰ- (“to drive, push”). Cognate with Scots drave, dreef (“drove, crowd”), Dutch dreef (“a walkway, wide road with trees, drove”), Middle High German treip (“a drove”), Swedish drev (“a drive, drove”), Icelandic dreif (“a scattering, distribution”). More at drive.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /dɹoʊv/
- British English: /dɹəʊv/