bedrive

bedrive means to drive or toss about; drive out, off, back, or away; defeat.

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”).

verb

To drive or toss about; drive out, off, back, or away; defeat.
To effect; do; commit; perpetrate; experience.e.g.“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.” — 1889, Henry Morley, Early prose romances:

Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Words closest in meaning

By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.

dreave 68% match — To drive; drive out; drive away; expel. vs bedrive →
fordrive 65% match — To drive away; expel. vs bedrive →
todrive 64% match — To scatter. vs bedrive →
outdrive 63% match — To drive a vehicle, etc. farther or better than. vs bedrive →
dreve 63% match — To trouble; afflict; make anxious. vs bedrive →
bethrow 59% match — To throw or twist about; throw off; torture. vs bedrive →
bedeal 58% match — To deprive (of). vs bedrive →
redrive 58% match — To drive again; drive back. vs bedrive →