drove

1 of 2

noun

ˈdrōv 

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

Synonyms

Noun

• army
• bike [chiefly Scottish]
• cram
• crowd
• crush
• flock
• herd
• horde
• host
• legion
• mass
• mob
• multitude
• press
• rout
• scrum
• swarm
• throng

Examples of drove in a Sentence

Noun

people flocked to the annual festival in droves

Recent Examples on the Web

Noun

What is clearcut is that scammers will be out in their droves looking to trick users into clicking and installing shortcuts and workarounds as the deadline approaches and then passes. —Zak Doffman, Forbes, 16 Jan. 2025

Flashback: The Tampa Bay estuary was once full of oysters, but as droves of people moved to the area over the last century, developers dredged the shellfish from the bay to be used for infrastructure like roads, Plage said. —Kathryn Varn, Axios, 7 Jan. 2025

The Toyota Camry the 20-year-old drove had been shot multiple times, police said. —Kirsten Fiscus, The Tennessean, 17 Oct. 2024

Georgia set the stage for the moment, with droves of voters casting ballots as local officials prepare for Nov. 5. —Nicole Fallert, USA TODAY, 16 Oct. 2024

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

Kids Definition

drove

1 of 2 noun

ˈdrōv 

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"