DCHP-2

drive ((v.)) DCHP-1 (pre-1967)

• 1a v.

  move a mass of logs by floating them downstream at high water in the spring; manage or control logs being moved in this way.

  See also: run ((n.)) (def. 3)  

  • 1848  They obtain their living by "driving" logs, and are as happy as they are ignorant.
  • 1917  Most of the logs to supply these mills must now be brought from distances of fifty to a hundred and fifty miles . . . often requiring two years to drive them.
  • 1960  A series of slides along the Ottawa River completed the system, making it a matter of only six weeks to drive from Bytown to Quebec.

• 1b v.

  take part in the activity of driving logs on a river.

  • 1854  [Though] there is very little sympathy among lumbermen . . . necessity compels them often to "drive" together.
  • 1964  His father and grandfather drove the Petawawa and Madawaska rivers for men like Gillies and Booth.

• 2 v.

  take part in drive hunting.

  See also: deer drive  drive hunting  

  • 1832  (1953)  This is in my estimation an unsportsmanlike method, and is effected in the vicinity of the lakes, by driving the deer with dogs, who pursue the animal through the woods, till he is obliged to take refuge in the water. There a canoe is waiting; and as the hunted deer comes bounding along, and boldly dashes into the lake . . . [and when the deer weakens from fatigue, he is killed].
  • 1853  Deer-hunting is a very exciting sport; but I prefer still-hunting (or deer-stalking, as it is called in the Highlands of Scotland) to driving them into the lakes and rivers with hounds.

• 3 v.

  cut a road through a forest.

  • 1849  . . . to "drive" this new road through a wilderness, would cost at least £30,000, and then, they thought, it never could be kept clear in winter.

• 4 v. — West

  move cattle or other livestock from one place to another.

  • 1955  We would be driving cattle until well in January, through an uninhabited, little-known country.

• 5 v.

  See quote.

  • 1915  To drive beaver is to hunt them by driving them from their cabins beneath the ice.