fordrive means to drive away; expel. It carries an Arena rating of 1474, earned across 31 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, fordrive ranks #2,272 of 17,142 for Most Ingenious Words, #3,606 of 17,132 for Most Betrayed by Its Sound, #4,471 of 17,140 for Most Whimsical Words, #4,677 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words.
Why “fordrive” is a great word
FORDRIVE — [Verb] To drive away or expel, often with a sense of relentless physical motion. From Middle English fordriven, from Old English fordrīfan ("to drive, sweep away, expel"), from the Proto-Germanic prefix *fra- ("away, off") and the verb *drībaną ("to drive"). Unlike "expel," which formalizes an ejection from a group, or "disperse," which suggests a gentle scattering, to fordrive is to enact a raw, physical banishment. It is the shepherd’s dog harrying wolves from the flock, the cold, slanting rain that finally drives a beggar from the square, or a flood scouring topsoil from a field—the primal, wearying labor of clearing a space by force of motion.
Etymology
From Middle English fordriven, from Old English fordrīfan (“to drive, sweep away, drive on, impel, compel, drive away, expel, overtax”), from Proto-West Germanic *fradrīban, from Proto-Germanic *fradrībaną (“to drive away, drive out, expel”), equivalent to for- + drive. Cognate with West Frisian fordriuwe, ferdriuwe (“to expel”), Dutch verdrijven (“to expel”), German Low German verdrieven (“to drive away”), German vertreiben (“to expel, drive out, banish”), Danish fordrive (“to oust, expel”), Swedish fördriva (“to drive away, drive out, banish”).
verb
- To drive away; expel.
- To drive about; drive here and there; drive astray.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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