Verb

(en verb)

(archaic) To undress, disrobe.

* 1897 , Henry James, What Maisie Knew :

Having divested the child he kissed her gently and gave her a little pat to make her stand off.

To strip, deprive, or dispossess (someone) (of) something (such as a right, passion, privilege, or prejudice).

You shall never divest me of my right to free speech.

When I wake up, I make a point to divest myself of all my prejudices, ready to start the day.

To sell off or be rid of through sale, especially of a subsidiary

In 2011 the company divested an 81% majority stake in its Chinese subsidiary.

Verb

(head)

(archaic) (drive)

(Mary Shelley)

Verb

To impel or urge onward by force; to push forward; to compel to move on.

to drive sheep out of a field

* Jowett (Thucyd.)

A storm came on and drove them into Pylos.

(intransitive) To direct a vehicle powered by a horse, ox or similar animal.

*

, title=(The Celebrity), chapter=2 , passage=We drove back to the office with some concern on my part at the prospect of so large a case. Sunning himself on the board steps, I saw for the first time Mr. Farquhar Fenelon Cooke. He was dressed out in broad gaiters and bright tweeds, like an English tourist, and his face might have belonged to Dagon, idol of the Philistines.}}

To cause animals to flee out of.

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

To cause (a mechanism) to operate.

(ergative) To operate (a wheeled motorized vehicle).

To motivate; to provide an incentive for.

To compel (to do something).

To cause to become.

*

, title=(The Celebrity), chapter=4 , passage=One morning I had been driven to the precarious refuge afforded by the steps of the inn, after rejecting offers from the Celebrity to join him in a variety of amusements. But even here I was not free from interruption, for he was seated on a horse-block below me, playing with a fox terrier.}}

(cricket) To hit the ball with a .

To travel by operating a wheeled motorized vehicle.

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

To move forcefully.

* Dryden

Fierce Boreas drove against his flying sails.

* Prescott

under cover of the night and a driving tempest

* Tennyson

Time driveth onward fast, / And in a little while our lips are dumb.

* {{quote-news, year=2010, date=December 29, author=Mark Vesty, work=BBC

, title= Wigan 2-2 Arsenal , passage=The impressive Frenchman drove forward with purpose down the right before cutting infield and darting in between Vassiriki Diaby and Koscielny. }}

To urge, press, or bring to a point or state.

* Tennyson

enough to drive one mad

* Sir Philip Sidney

He, driven to dismount, threatened, if I did not do the like, to do as much for my horse as fortune had done for his.

To carry or to keep in motion; to conduct; to prosecute.

* Collier

The trade of life can not be driven without partners.

(Francis Bacon)

To clear, by forcing away what is contained.

* Dryden

to drive the country, force the swains away

(mining) To dig horizontally; to cut a horizontal gallery or tunnel.

(Tomlinson)

(obsolete) To distrain for rent.