Dictionary

bedrive en · VERB

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”).

Meanings

1. (archaic, transitive) To drive or toss about; drive out, off, back, or away; defeat.
   • But when every human help ceased, that they might trust more to divine help, they then first began to fight against their foes, who for many years before harried and plundered on them, and they then made a great slaughter among them, and bedrove them home, and had a victory. 1852, Alfred (King of England), The whole works of King Alfred the Great:
2. (archaic, transitive) To effect; do; commit; perpetrate; experience.
   • 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:

Forms

Relateds

bedrift