withdrive
withdrive verb: to drive away, repel.
Verb
withdrive (third-person singular simple present withdrives, present participle withdriving, simple past withdrove, past participle withdriven)
- To drive away, repel.
- The same [Sorell] water withdryueth impetigines.1527, L. Andrewe tr. H. von Braunschweig Vertuose Bk. Distyllacyon ii. ii. sig. Aij/2
- […] would result in a reduction in the numbers of this vector of disease, proportionate to the thoroughness and persistence with which the procedures were carried out. Centuries ago wise men taught, that to 'withdrive' THE GREAT FAMINE.1976, Robert Dudley Edwards, Thomas Desmond Williams, The great famine: studies in Irish history, 1845-52
Forms of withdrive
| third-person singular present | withdrives |
|---|---|
| present participle | withdriving |
| past | withdrove |
| past participle | withdriven |
Origin of withdrive
From Middle English *withdriven, from Old English wiþdrīfan (“to repel”), from Proto-West Germanic *wiþidrīban (“to drive back”), equivalent to with- + drive. Cognate with Old Frisian withdrīva (“to restore”). Compare also Old High German widartrīban (“to drive back, refute”), whence archaic German widertreiben (“to drive back, prevent, thwart”).
Questions about withdrive
- What does withdrive mean?
- Withdrive means to drive away, repel.
- What part of speech is withdrive?
- Withdrive is a verb.
- What is the past tense of withdrive?
- The past tense of withdrive is withdrove.
Words near withdrive in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: withdrive (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “withdrive.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/withdrive. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.