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

Fans of action RPGs like Diablo and POE know how important strong endgame content is to a game like it, and POE 2 seemingly has droves of it. —Jason Fields, Newsweek, 5 Dec. 2024

In the wake of the U.S. presidential election, droves of Americans are thinking of moving abroad. —Laura Begley Bloom, Forbes, 24 Nov. 2024

Those who get annoyed at stores stocking holiday decorations right after Halloween would have fumed at the droves of people decked out in Santa hats and holiday regalia for Mariah Carey’s Christmastime at Moody Center on Sunday. —Mars Salazar, Austin American-Statesman, 18 Nov. 2024

This way, stores can be ready when droves of customers stop by to grab their sweet fix. —Francisco Velasquez, Quartz, 7 Nov. 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"