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drove

Pronunciation: /dɹəʊv/

The English word “drove” has 9 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. The herd being driven in a cattle (or other animal) drive; thus, a number of animals driven to market or new pastures; a group of livestock animals more generally.
  2. A large number of people on the move.
  3. A group of other animals, especially hares when seen in coursing or hunting.
  4. A road or track along which cattle are habitually, used to be or could be driven; a droveway.
  5. A narrow drain or channel used in the irrigation of land.
  6. A broad chisel used to bring stone to a nearly smooth surface.
  7. The grooved surface of stone finished by the drove chisel.

verb

  1. To herd cattle; particularly over a long distance.
  2. To finish (stone) with a drove chisel.

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,…

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.