Adjacent Words

Driven definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

DRIVEN, pp. Drivn. [from drive.] Urged forward by force; impelled to move; constrained by necessity.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: compelled forcibly by an outside agency; "mobs goaded by blind hatred" [syn: driven, goaded]
2: urged or forced to action through moral pressure; "felt impelled to take a stand against the issue" [syn: driven, impelled]
3: strongly motivated to succeed [syn: compulsive, determined, driven]

Merriam Webster's

adjective Date: 1925 1. having a compulsive or urgent quality <a driven sense of obligation> 2. propelled or motivated by something — used in combination <results-driven> • drivenness noun

Oxford Reference Dictionary

past part. of DRIVE.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Drive Drive (dr[imac]v), v. t. [imp. Drove (dr[=o]v), formerly Drave (dr[=a]v); p. p. Driven (dr[i^]v'n); p. pr. & vb. n. Driving.] [AS. dr[=i]fan; akin to OS. dr[=i]ban, D. drijven, OHG. tr[=i]ban, G. treiben, Icel. dr[=i]fa, Goth. dreiban. Cf. Drift, Drove.] 1. To impel or urge onward by force in a direction away from one, or along before one; to push forward; to compel to move on; to communicate motion to; as, to drive cattle; to drive a nail; smoke drives persons from a room. 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.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Driven Driv"en, p. p. of Drive. Also adj. Driven well, a well made by driving a tube into the earth to an aqueous stratum; -- called also drive well.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

Driven is the past participle of drive.