Bedrive
verb ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 To drive or toss about; drive out, off, back, or away; defeat. archaic, transitive
"But when every human help ceased, that they might trust more to divine help, they then first began to fight against their foes, who for many years before harried and plundered on them, and they then made a great slaughter among them, and bedrove them home, and had a victory."
- 2 To effect; do; commit; perpetrate; experience. archaic, transitive
"And every man that standeth here would well bethink him what he hath done and bedriven in his days, he should the better have patience and pity on Reynart."
Example
More examples"But when every human help ceased, that they might trust more to divine help, they then first began to fight against their foes, who for many years before harried and plundered on them, and they then made a great slaughter among them, and bedrove them home, and had a victory."
Etymology
From Middle English bidriven, from Old English bedrīfan (“to drive; beat; strike; assail; follow up; pursue; surround; cover”), from Proto-West Germanic *bidrīban, equivalent to be- + drive. Cognate with Dutch bedrijven (“to commit, perpetrate”), German betreiben (“to operate, conduct, pursue”), Swedish bedriva (“to manage, carry on, prosecute”).
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.