First and foremost ‘to drive’ being the infinitive means to operate and control the direction (i.e.) provide the energy to keep (an engine or machine) in motion.
In ball games, it is to hit or kick the ball hard. Another valid meaning is to bore, as in bore a tunnel. Most importantly it is to force to move in a specified direction.
It can be useful to note that all forms of driving require energy or fuel and more often than not efficiency can be brought in to question
Colloquially, to be driven is ; to compel to act in a particular way, e.g. ‘he was driven by ambition’.
A drive is also the noun standing for (I) a trip or journey in a car (ii) a short private road leading to a house (Iii) an innate, biologically determined urge (iv) An organized effort to achieve a particular purpose (e.g. a recruitment drive) (v) the transmission of power to machinery or to the wheels of a vehicle.
Interestingly, drive is also an abbreviation of the term ‘disk drive’ when talking about computing.
Animals can also be driven as in the act of driving cattle or a herd of animals.
A driver, however, does not only mean a person or thing that drives something. It can also mean a flat faced golf club.
To do justice to the definition and etymology of this word, we have an additional list of other similar words below which are appropriate.
[1.] Operate, steer, handle, guide, direct, manage - as in drive a bus
[2.] Move, herd, get going, urge, press, impel, push, round up, - as in drive cattle
[3.] Force, make, compel, coerce, oblige, impel, pressure, goad, spur, prod - as in driven to distraction
[4.] Hammer, thrust, ram, strike, bang, sink, plunge - for example ‘to drive in the stake’
[5.] To drive at, mean, suggest, imply, indicate, intimate, have in mind - as in ‘what are you driving at ?’
[6.] Drive and ambition, energy, determination, enthusiasm, industry, vigor, push, motivation, persistence, keenness, enterprise, initiative, aggressiveness, zeal, verve, informally ‘get up and go’, ‘pizazz’, ‘zip’
