Artificial intelligent assistant

drove

I. drove, n.
    (drəʊv)
    Forms: 1–2 dráf, 3 drof, 4– drove, (5 drowe, north. drafe, draffe, drawe, 6 droave, Sc. drave).
    [OE. dráf, from 2nd ablaut grade of dr{iacu}fan to drive.]
    I. 1. The action of driving. (Only OE.)

971 Blickl. Hom. 199 He þa se fear þæs hyrdes drafe forhoᵹode.

    2. A number of beasts, as oxen, sheep, etc., driven in a body; a herd, flock.

a 1121 O.E. Chron. (Laud MS.) an. 1016 Hi drifon..heora drafa in to Medewæᵹe. c 1350 Will. Palerne 181 Whanne he went hom eche niȝt wiþ is droue of bestis. 1483 Cath. Angl. 107 A Drawe of nowte [A. a Draffe of Nowte], armentum. 1555 Eden Decades 300 They go..with theyr droues of cattayle. 1576 Fleming Panopl. Epist. 27 He had also, gathered together, as it were in a droave, much cattel. a 1674 Clarendon Hist. Reb. xi. §48 Market day, when great droves of little Horses, laden with sacks of corn, allways resorted to the Town. 1837 Lytton E. Maltrav. 11 He passed a drove of sheep.

    b. transf. A crowd, multitude, shoal (of other animals, or of human beings, esp. when moving in a body; also fig. of things).

1014 Wulfstan Hom. xxxiii. (1883) 163 [Hi] drifaþ ða drafe cristenra manna fram sæ to sæ. c 1250 Gen. & Ex. 102 It mai ben hoten heuene-Rof; It hileð al ðis werldes drof. 1590 Spenser F.Q. iii. viii. 29 Proteus..Along the fomy waves driving his finny drove. 1596 Dalrymple tr. Leslie's Hist. Scot. I. 51 In draues as it war, returnes to thair awne cuntrey. 1607 Hieron Wks. I. 230 That olde popish rule, to follow the droue, and to beleeue as the church beleeueth. 1692 Washington Milton's Def. Pop. M.'s Wks. 1738 I. 494 Then a great drove of Heresies and Immoralities broke loose among them. 1724 De Foe Mem. Cavalier (1840) 164 The Welchmen came in by droves. 1857 Hawthorne Fr. & It. Jrnls. II. 260 A ghost in every room, and droves of them in some of the rooms.

    3. Locally, esp. in the Fen District: a. A road along which horses or cattle are driven. b. A channel for drainage or irrigation.

934 Charter of æðelstan in Cod. Dipl. V. 217 Of ðam hlince andlang drafæ on ðonæ hlinc æt waddænæ. [1319 Reg. Christ Ch. Cant. in Cunningham Law Dict. s.v., Pasturas..cum omnibus pertinentiis drovis viis semitis & fossatis.] 1664–5 Act 16 & 17 Chas. II, c. 11 §13 Libertie..to passe and repasse upon any..Drove or Droves in or compassing the said Fenns. 1829 [J. R. Best] Personal & Lit. Mem. 456 The major rode in the middle of the Drove (so our fen roads are called). 1844 Camp of Refuge I. 44 Droves or cuts to carry off the increase of water towards the Wash. 1861 Smiles Engineers I. 67 Many droves, leams, eaus, and drains were cut. 1893 Baring-Gould Cheap Jack Z. I. 58 [In the Fens] there is no material of which roads can be made. In place of roads there are ‘droves’.

    II. 4. A stone-mason's chisel with a broad face.

1825 Jamieson, Drove, the broadest iron used by a mason in hewing stones. 1881 Morgan Contrib. to Amer. Ethnol. 180 It shows no marks of the chisel or the drove.

    III. 5. Comb., as drove-dike, drove-way; drove-road, an ancient road or track along which there is a free right of way for cattle, but which is not ‘made’ or kept in repair by any authority.

1865 Kingsley Herew. xxi, He sprang up the *drove⁓dyke.


1823 Blackw. Mag. XIV. 189 The *drove-road passed at no great distance. 1892 Spectator 12 Mar. 355/1 The old rights-of-way known as ‘drove-roads’ [in Scotland]. 1895 Daily News 1 Oct. 6/3 The drove road in Southern Scotland is the way once used by drovers..from the extreme north.


1239–52 Rental Glaston. (Som. Rec. Soc. 1891) 44 Philippus bel tenet vij acras et quoddam iter quod vocatur *Drofwei. 1664–5 Act 16 & 17 Chas. II, c. 11 §22 The twoe Drove wayes in the said Fenns called the North drove and South drove. 1726 Laws of Sewers 181 Whereby Drove Ways, Bridges &c...shall be obstructed.

II. drove, v.1 Obs.
    Also 4 druve, druvy.
    [Early ME. drōven, a derivative of OE. dróf, drof, turbid, troubled, disturbed. Cf. dreve v.1]
    1. trans. To trouble, disturb.

a 1300 E.E. Psalter iii. 2 Hou fele-folded are þai, Þat droves me to do me wa. a 1300 Cursor M. 11974 His moder mode wald he noght droue. a 1340 Hampole Psalter ii. 5 In his wodnes he sall druuy þaim. Ibid. vi. 2 Druuyd ere all my banes.

    2. intr. To become troubled or overcast.

a 1300 Cursor M. 24418 Ouer al þe werld ne was bot night, Al droued and wex dime.

III. drove, v.2
    [f. drove n.; or back-formation from drover.]
    To drive herds of cattle; to follow the occupation of a drover. (trans. and intr.)

1632 Lithgow Trav. x. 459 Baptista the Coach-man, an Indian Negro droving out at the Sea-gate. 1805 Forsyth Beauties Scotl. II. 328 Persons who drove to a considerable extent ought to have funds or friends of their own to be security for them. 1881 Gentl. Mag. Jan. 61 Scores of highly born and bred men live by droving cattle.

IV. drove, v.3
    [f. drove n. 4.]
    trans. To dress (stone) in parallel lines with a drove or broad chisel. Hence droved ppl. a.

1825 Jamieson, Drove, to hew stones for building by means of a broad pointed instrument. 1830 Gray Arithmetic 98 The Droved hewn-work of said house: the rybats and lintels of 6 windows..6 soles of ditto. 1842–76 Gwilt Archit. §1914 In Scotland, besides the above described sorts of work, there are some other kinds, termed droved, broached, and striped. Droving is the same as that called random tooling in England, or boasting in London. Ibid. §1915 The workmen will not take the same pains to drove the face of a stone which is to be afterwards broached.

V. drove
    pa. tense (and obs. pa. pple.) of drive v.
VI. drove
    var. of drof a. Obs.

Oxford English Dictionary

yu7NTAkq2jTfdvEzudIdQgChiKuccveC ec025c0f1764127e969e12cf8add4b48