different between cause vs drive

English

Etymology

From Middle English cause, borrowed from Old French cause (“a cause, a thing”), from Latin causa (“reason, sake, cause”), in Middle English also "a thing". Origin uncertain. See accuse, excuse, recuse, ruse. Displaced native Middle English sake (“cause, reason”) (from Old English sacu (“cause”)), Middle English andweorc, andwork (“matter, cause”) (from Old English andweorc (“matter, thing, cause”)).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: kôz, IPA^(key): /k??z/, [k?o?z?]
• (General American) IPA^(key): /k?z/, [k???z?]
• Rhymes: -??z
• Homophones: caws, 'cause; cores (non-rhotic dialects)

Noun

cause (countable and uncountable, plural causes)

1. (countable, often with of, typically of adverse results) The source of, or reason for, an event or action; that which produces or effects a result.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:cause

2. (uncountable, especially with for and a bare noun) Sufficient reason for a state, as of emotion.

   Synonyms: grounds, justification

3. (countable) A goal, aim or principle, especially one which transcends purely selfish ends.
   • 1796, Edmund Burke, a letter to a noble lord

     The part they take against me is from zeal to the cause.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:goal

4. (obsolete) Sake; interest; advantage.

   • I did it not for his cause.

5. (countable, obsolete) Any subject of discussion or debate; a matter; an affair.
6. (countable, law) A suit or action in court; any legal process by which a party endeavors to obtain his claim, or what he regards as his right; case; ground of action.

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• effect

Verb

cause (third-person singular simple present causes, present participle causing, simple past and past participle caused)

1. (transitive) To set off an event or action.

   • Serene, smiling, enigmatic, she faced him with no fear whatever showing in her dark eyes. […] She put back a truant curl from her forehead where it had sought egress to the world, and looked him full in the face now, drawing a deep breath which caused the round of her bosom to lift the lace at her throat.
2. (ditransitive) To actively produce as a result, by means of force or authority.

   • I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days.
3. To assign or show cause; to give a reason; to make excuse.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Spenser to this entry?)

Derived terms

• causation
• causer

Translations

Further reading

• cause at OneLook Dictionary Search
• cause in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• cause in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• -sauce, sauce

Asturian

Verb

cause

1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive of causar

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /koz/
• Homophones: causent, causes

Etymology 1

From Old French cause, borrowed from Classical Latin causa. Compare chose, an inherited doublet.

Noun

cause f (plural causes)

1. cause

   Antonym: conséquence

2. (law) case (a legal proceeding)

Derived terms

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the main entry.

Verb

cause

1. inflection of causer:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
   2. second-person singular imperative

Further reading

• “cause” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Anagrams

• sauce, sceau

Italian

Noun

cause f pl

1. plural of causa

Middle English

Etymology

Borrowed from Old French cause.

Noun

cause (plural causes)

1. cause
   • 14^th Century, Chaucer, General Prologue

     He knew the cause of everich maladye

     He knew the cause of every illness

Descendants

• English: cause

Norman

Etymology

From Old French cause, borrowed from Latin causa.

Noun

cause f (plural causes)

1. (Jersey, law) case

Old French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin causa, whence the inherited chose.

Noun

cause f (oblique plural causes, nominative singular cause, nominative plural causes)

1. cause

Descendants

• Middle English: cause
  • English: cause
• Middle French: cause
  • French: cause
• Norman: cause

Portuguese

Verb

cause

1. first-person singular (eu) present subjunctive of causar
2. third-person singular (ele and ela, also used with você and others) present subjunctive of causar
3. third-person singular (você) affirmative imperative of causar
4. third-person singular (você) negative imperative of causar

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?kause/, [?kau?.se]

Verb

cause

1. Formal second-person singular (usted) imperative form of causar.
2. First-person singular (yo) present subjunctive form of causar.
3. Formal second-person singular (usted) present subjunctive form of causar.
4. Third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted^?) present subjunctive form of causar.

English

Alternative forms

• (type of public roadway): Dr. (when part of a specific street’s name)

Etymology

From Middle English driven, from Old English dr?fan (“to drive, force, move”), from Proto-West Germanic *dr?ban, from Proto-Germanic *dr?ban? (“to drive”), from Proto-Indo-European *d?reyb?- (“to drive, push”), from Proto-Indo-European *d?er- (“support, hold”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: dr?v, IPA^(key): /d?a?v/
• IPA^(key): [d??? ??a?v]
• Rhymes: -a?v

Noun

drive (countable and uncountable, plural drives)

2. Motivation to do or achieve something; ability coupled with ambition.

3. Violent or rapid motion; a rushing onward or away; especially, a forced or hurried dispatch of business.
   • 1881, Matthew Arnold, The Incompatibles

     The Murdstonian drive in business.

4. An act of driving animals forward, as to be captured, hunted etc.
   • 1955, Robin Jenkins, The Cone-Gatherers, Canongate 2012, page 79:

     Are you all ready?’ he cried, and set off towards the dead ash where the drive would begin.

5. (military) A sustained advance in the face of the enemy to take a strategic objective.

6. A mechanism used to power or give motion to a vehicle or other machine or machine part.

   a typical steam drive, a nuclear drive; chain drive, gear drive; all-wheel drive, front-wheel drive, left-hand drive

   • 2001, Michael Hereward Westbrook, The Electric Car, IET (?ISBN), page 146:

     Heat engine-electric hybrid vehicles : The hybrid vehicle on which most development work has been done to date is the one that couples a heat engine with an electric drive system. The objective remains the same as it was in 1900:

7. A trip made in a vehicle (now generally in a motor vehicle).
   • 1859, Wilkie Collins, The Woman in White:

     We merely waited to rouse good Mrs. Vesey from the place which she still occupied at the deserted luncheon-table, before we entered the open carriage for our promised drive.

8. A driveway.
9. A type of public roadway.

10. (dated) A place suitable or agreeable for driving; a road prepared for driving.
11. (psychology) Desire or interest.
    • 1995 March 2, John Carman, "Believe it, You Saw It In Sweeps", SFGate [1]

      On the latter show, former Playboy Playmate Carrie Westcott said she'd never met a man who could match her sexual drive.

12. (computer hardware) An apparatus for reading and writing data to or from a mass storage device such as a disk, as a floppy drive.
13. (computer hardware) A mass storage device in which the mechanism for reading and writing data is integrated with the mechanism for storing data, as a hard drive, a flash drive.
14. (golf) A stroke made with a driver.
16. (baseball, tennis) A ball struck in a flat trajectory.
17. (cricket) A type of shot played by swinging the bat in a vertical arc, through the line of the ball, and hitting it along the ground, normally between cover and midwicket.
18. (soccer) A straight level shot or pass.
19. (American football) An offensive possession, generally one consisting of several plays and/ or first downs, often leading to a scoring opportunity.
20. A charity event such as a fundraiser, bake sale, or toy drive.

    a whist drive; a beetle drive

21. (retail) A campaign aimed at selling more of a certain product, e.g. by offering a discount.
22. (typography) An impression or matrix formed by a punch drift.
23. A collection of objects that are driven; a mass of logs to be floated down a river.

Usage notes

• In connection with a mass-storage device, originally the word “drive” referred solely to the reading and writing mechanism. For the storage device itself, the word “disk” was used instead. This remains a valid distinction for components such as floppy drives or CD drives, in which the drive and the disk are separate and independent items. For other devices, such as hard disks and flash drives, the reading, writing and storage components are combined into an integrated whole, and cannot be separated without destroying the device. In these cases, the words “disk” and “drive” are used interchangeably.

Synonyms

• (self-motivation): ambition, enthusiasm, get-up-and-go, motivation, self-motivation, verve
• (sustained advance in the face of the enemy): attack, push
• (mechanism used to power a vehicle): engine, mechanism, motor
• (trip made in a motor vehicle): ride, spin, trip
• (driveway): approach, driveway
• (public roadway): avenue, boulevard, road, street
• (psychology: desire, interest): desire, impetus, impulse, urge
• (computing: mass-storage device): disk drive
• (golf term):
• (baseball term): line drive
• (cricket term):

Antonyms

• (self-motivation): inertia, lack of motivation, laziness, phlegm, sloth

Hyponyms

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

drive (third-person singular simple present drives, present participle driving, simple past drove or (archaic) drave or (dialectal) driv, past participle driven or (dialectal) druv)

1. (transitive) To provide an impetus for motion or other physical change, to move an object by means of the provision of force thereto.

2. (transitive) To provide an impetus for a non-physical change, especially a change in one's state of mind.

   My wife's constant harping about the condition of the house threatens to drive me to distraction.

3. To displace either physically or non-physically, through the application of force.
   • c. 1607, William Shakespeare, Coriolanus, Act IV, Scene 7,^[2]

     One fire drives out one fire; one nail, one nail;

     Rights by rights falter, strengths by strengths do fail.

4. To cause intrinsic motivation through the application or demonstration of force: to impel or urge onward thusly, to compel to move on, to coerce, intimidate or threaten.
   • 1881, Benjamin Jowett (translator), Thucydides [History of the Peloponnesian War], Oxford: Clarendon, Volume I, Book 4, p. 247,^[3]

     […] Demosthenes desired them first to put in at Pylos and not to proceed on their voyage until they had done what he wanted. They objected, but it so happened that a storm came on and drove them into Pylos.

5. (transitive) (especially of animals) To impel or urge onward by force; to push forward; to compel to move on.

   to drive twenty thousand head of cattle from Texas to the Kansas railheads; to drive sheep out of a field

6. (transitive, intransitive) To direct a vehicle powered by a horse, ox or similar animal.
   • c. 1605, William Shakespeare, King Lear, Act II, Scene 6,^[4]

     There is a litter ready; lay him in’t

     And drive towards Dover, friend, where thou shalt meet

     Both welcome and protection.
7. (transitive) To cause animals to flee out of.

   (Can we add an example for this sense?)

8. (transitive) To move (something) by hitting it with great force.

9. (transitive) To cause (a mechanism) to operate.

10. (transitive, ergative) To operate (a wheeled motorized vehicle).

11. (transitive) To motivate; to provide an incentive for.

12. (transitive) To compel (to do something).

13. (transitive) To cause to become.
    • 1855, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Maud, XXV, 1. in Maud, and Other Poems, London: Edward Moxon, p. 90,^[5]

      And then to hear a dead man chatter

      Is enough to drive one mad.

15. (intransitive, cricket, tennis, baseball) To hit the ball with a drive.
16. (intransitive) To travel by operating a wheeled motorized vehicle.

17. (transitive) To convey (a person, etc) in a wheeled motorized vehicle.

18. (intransitive) To move forcefully.
    • c. 1600, William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act II, Chapter 2,^[6]

      […] Unequal match’d,

      Pyrrhus at Priam drives, in rage strikes wide;

    • 1697, John Dryden (translator), The Aeneid, Book I, lines 146-148, in The Works of Virgil, Volume 2, London: J. Tonson, 1709, 3rd edition, pp. 306-307,^[7]

      Thus while the Pious Prince his Fate bewails,

      Fierce Boreas drove against his flying Sails.

      And rent the Sheets […]

    • 1833, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, “The Lotos-Eaters” in Poems, London: Edward Moxon, p. 113,^[8]

      Time driveth onward fast,

      And in a little while our lips are dumb.

    • 1855, William H. Prescott, History of the Reign of Philip the Second, King of Spain, Boston: Phillips, Sampson & Co., Volume I, Chapter 1, p. 7,^[9]

      Charles, ill in body and mind, and glad to escape from his enemies under cover of the night and a driving tempest, was at length compelled to sign the treaty of Passau […]
19. (intransitive) To be moved or propelled forcefully (especially of a ship).
    • c. 1608, William Shakespeare, Pericles, Act III, Prologue,^[10]

      […] as a duck for life that dives,

      So up and down the poor ship drives:

    • 1743, Robert Drury, The Pleasant, and Surprizing Adventures of Mr. Robert Drury, during his Fifteen Years Captivity on the Island of Madagascar, London, p. 12,^[11]

      […] the Captain […] order’d the Cable to be cut, and let the Ship drive nearer the Land, where she soon beat to pieces:

20. (transitive) To urge, press, or bring to a point or state.
    • 1590, Philip Sidney, The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia, London: William Ponsonbie, Book 2, Chapter 19, p. 186,^[12]

      He driuen to dismount, threatned, if I did not the like, to doo as much for my horse, as Fortune had done for his.

    • c. 1591, William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 1, Act V, Scene 4,^[13]

      But darkness and the gloomy shade of death

      Environ you, till mischief and despair

      Drive you to break your necks or hang yourselves!

21. (transitive) To carry or to keep in motion; to conduct; to prosecute.
    • 1694, Jeremy Collier, Miscellanies in Five Essays, London: Sam. Keeble & Jo. Hindmarsh, “Of General Kindness,” p. 69,^[14]

      You know the Trade of Life can’t be driven without Partners; there is a reciprocal Dependance between the Greatest and the Least.

    (Can we find and add a quotation of Francis Bacon to this entry?)

22. (transitive) To clear, by forcing away what is contained.
    • 1697, John Dryden (translator), The Aeneid, Book I, lines 744-745, in The Works of Virgil, Volume 2, London: J. Tonson, 1709, 3rd edition, p. 328,^[15]

      We come not with design of wastful Prey,

      To drive the Country, force the Swains away:

23. (mining) To dig horizontally; to cut a horizontal gallery or tunnel.
    • 1852-1866, Charles Tomlinson, Cyclopaedia of Useful Arts and Manufactures

      If the miners find no ore, they drive or cut a gallery from the pit a short distance at right angles to the direction of the lodes found

24. (American football) To put together a drive (n.): to string together offensive plays and advance the ball down the field.
25. (obsolete) To distrain for rent.
26. (transitive) To separate the lighter (feathers or down) from the heavier, by exposing them to a current of air.
27. To be the dominant party in a sex act. (Can we add an example for this sense?)

Synonyms

• (herd (animals) in a particular direction): herd
• (cause animals to flee out of):
• (move something by hitting it with great force): force, push
• (cause (a mechanism) to operate): move, operate
• (operate (a wheeled motorized vehicle)):
• (motivate, provide an incentive for): impel, incentivise/incentivize, motivate, push, urge
• (compel): compel, force, oblige, push, require
• (cause to become): make, send, render
• (travel by operating a wheeled motorized vehicle): motorvate
• (convey (a person, etc) in a wheeled motorized vehicle): take

Hyponyms

• test-drive

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Anagrams

• Verdi, deriv., diver, rived, vired

Danish

Etymology 1

From Old Norse drífa, from Proto-Germanic *dr?ban?, cognate with Swedish driva, English drive, Dutch drijven, German treiben.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dri?v?/, [?d??i???], [?d??i??]

Verb

drive (past tense drev, past participle drevet, attributive common dreven, attributive definite and plural drevne)

1. (transitive) to force, drive, impel (to put in motion)
2. (transitive) to run (a business)
3. (transitive) to engage in, carry on (an activity or an interest)
4. (transitive) to power (to give power to)
5. (intransitive) to drift, float (to move slowly)

Inflection

Derived terms

References

• “drive,3” in Den Danske Ordbog

Etymology 2

From Old Norse drífa f, derived form the verb.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dri?v?/, [?d??i???], [?d??i??]

Noun

drive c (singular definite driven, plural indefinite driver)

1. drift (a pile of snow)

Inflection

Derived terms

• snedrive

References

• “drive,1” in Den Danske Ordbog

Etymology 3

From English drive.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /drajv/, [?d???j?]

Noun

drive c (singular definite driven, not used in plural form)

1. (psychology) drive (desire or interest, self-motivation)

Inflection

Noun

drive n (singular definite drivet, plural indefinite drives)

1. (golf) drive (stroke made with a driver)

Inflection

References

• “drive,2” in Den Danske Ordbog

French

Pronunciation

• Homophones: drivent, drives

Verb

drive

1. first-person singular present indicative of driver
2. third-person singular present indicative of driver
3. first-person singular present subjunctive of driver
4. third-person singular present subjunctive of driver
5. second-person singular imperative of driver

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From Old Norse drífa, from Proto-Germanic *dr?ban?, from Proto-Indo-European *d?reyb?- (“to drive, push”). Compare with Swedish driva, Icelandic drífa, English drive, Dutch drijven, German treiben.

Verb

drive (imperative driv, present tense driver, passive drives, simple past drev or dreiv, past participle drevet, present tense drivende)

1. to move; turn
2. to pursue
3. to deviate
4. to float; drift
5. to operate; run
6. to follow
7. to drive, propel

Derived terms

References

• “drive” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Verb

drive (present tense driv, past tense dreiv, supine drive, past participle driven, present participle drivande, imperative driv)

1. Alternative form of driva

Derived terms

• drivverdig
• fordrive

Portuguese

Etymology

Borrowed from English drive.

Pronunciation

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /?d?ajv/, /?d?aj.vi/

Noun

drive m (Brazil) or f (Portugal) (plural drives)

1. (computer hardware) drive (a mass-storage device)

Scots

Etymology

Derived from the verb, from Old English dr?fan.

Noun

drive (plural drives)

1. a drive
2. a forceful blow, a swipe

Verb

drive (third-person singular present drives, present participle drivin, past drave, past participle driven)

1. to drive