drove

1 of 2

noun

1
: a group of animals driven or moving in a body
2
: a large number : crowd
usually used in plural especially with in
came in droves

drove

2 of 2

past tense of drive

Examples of drove in a Sentence

Noun people flocked to the annual festival in droves
Recent Examples on the Web
Noun
Facebook Show more sharing options The men came in droves, sporting their long tresses, some sleek and straight, others wavy, frizzed and curly. Lori Weisberg, San Diego Union-Tribune, 17 Mar. 2024 Nathan Choi’s single in the third drove in Brock Ketelsen to complete the scoring. Darren Sabedra, The Mercury News, 13 Mar. 2024 So far, the law’s most noticeable effects seem to be sending droves of tourists to New Jersey and frustrating small-time Airbnb hosts. Amanda Hoover, WIRED, 5 Mar. 2024 Sites like eBay were converting droves of new online shoppers. Leo Schwartz, Fortune, 1 Feb. 2024 But although customers had to drive to all of the others, Domino’s drove to the customers. Peter Rubin, Longreads, 17 Jan. 2024 Following a documentary that aired on the case in which Erik Menendez repeated his claims of abuse, droves of people took to TikTok and Instagram to express support for him and his brother. Natalie Morales, CBS News, 2 Mar. 2024 That’s why droves of shoppers are heading to Amazon, which has an assortment of affordable tiny houses that are pre-built and easy to assemble. Clara McMahon, Peoplemag, 1 Mar. 2024 Still, his legions of fans find ways to separate the art from the artist and come in droves every time a new album drops. Carl Lamarre, Billboard, 21 Feb. 2024

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'drove.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

Noun

Middle English, from Old English drāf, from drīfan to drive — more at drive

First Known Use

Noun

before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of drove was before the 12th century

Dictionary Entries Near drove

Cite this Entry

“Drove.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/drove. Accessed 28 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

drove

1 of 2 noun
1
: a group of animals driven or moving in a body
2
: a crowd of people moving or acting together

drove

2 of 2

past of drive

Etymology

Noun

Old English drāf "group of animals moving together," from drīfan "to drive"

More from Merriam-Webster on drove

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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