droves


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drove 1

 (drōv)
v.
Past tense of drive.

drove 2

 (drōv)
n.
1.
a. A flock or herd being driven in a body.
b. often droves A large mass of people moving or acting as a body: people moving through the streets in droves.
2.
a. A stonemason's broad-edged chisel used for rough hewing.
b. A stone surface dressed with such a chisel.

[Middle English, from Old English drāf, from drīfan, to drive; see dhreibh- in Indo-European roots.]
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Translations

droves

[ˈdrəʊvz]
n
droves of people → une foule de gens
in droves (= in large numbers) → en nombre
They came in droves → Ils sont venus en nombre.
Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005
References in classic literature ?
It will be worth another ten dollars to you if you can find me the man who drove her."
Peter and Pavel drove in the groom's sledge, and six sledges followed with all his relatives and friends.
I never knew the carriage to go out so often before; when the mistress did not go out the master drove himself in the two-wheeled chaise; but now, whether it was master or the young ladies, or only an errand, Ginger and I were put in the carriage and James drove us.
He had, however, taken the precaution to engage in advance a runabout with a pair of old livery-stable trotters that could still do their eighteen miles on level roads; and at two o'clock, hastily deserting the luncheon-table, he sprang into the light carriage and drove off.
At Sacramento they stopped two weeks, where Billy drove team and earned the money to put them along on their travels.
Idaeus did not dare to bestride his brother's body, but sprang from the chariot and took to flight, or he would have shared his brother's fate; whereon Vulcan saved him by wrapping him in a cloud of darkness, that his old father might not be utterly overwhelmed with grief; but the son of Tydeus drove off with the horses, and bade his followers take them to the ships.
The carriage drove into the courtyard, and Stepan Arkadyevitch rang loudly at the entrance where sledges were standing.
"We shall find a better trap than this at the church-door," says he; "that's a comfort." And the carriage drove on, taking the road down Piccadilly, where Apsley House and St.
Dismissing the driver she took the reins in her own hands and drove off at top speed through the streets.
Meanwhile he drove all the ewes inside, as well as the she-goats that he was going to milk, leaving the males, both rams and he-goats, outside in the yards.
Then they went out of the city, and drove the geese on.
As they drove on the fragment of an old manor house of Caroline date rose against the sky, and was in due course passed and left behind.