Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
🚗 To arrive by car ⚾ To score a run 🔨 To force in
to drive in

to drive in

7 4.0
To push a nail, screw, or bolt into a surface using a tool
  • phrasal verb
  • /draɪv ɪn/
translation icon : clavar (clavo)
  • Before assembling the furniture, make sure to drive in all the screws securely.
  • drove in a nail
  • drive in a screw
  • drive around

Examples

  • Couldn't drive a pick in the ground around here.

    Trader Horn (1931)

  • I was in the low post, I was driving it in hard.

    Black Mass (2015)

  • If I take you back, the police are gonna drive a long nail in here.

    The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things (2004)

  • Lanz came up with a big hit to drive in a key run in the Giants' victory.

    The Fan (1996)

  • Then you can just drive in all the screws and it'll be done and we'll just start down there.

  • In the cannon's touchhole is an iron spike—a replica of the one Ethan Allen drove in.

    Fiction book (1992)

  • Using a hammer, you can drive in the nails to hold the wooden planks together.

  • To install the shelf, you need to drive in the brackets into the wall.

Synonyms

to screw into
vsto drive in
1 2.8

Attach something to a wall or wood by turning a metal piece into it

applies more broadly to forcing nails bolts or threaded fasteners into material

Antonyms

to remove
∞ 1.5

To move something or someone away from a place

to pull out
523 2.7

To take something out of a place, often with effort

How Firmly

to embed
88 4.8
to drive in
7 4.0
tap
66 1.0

Surface Forms

drive in infinitive
driving in present participle
drives in third person singular
drove in past
driven in past participle

Morphology

drive + in

The sense 'to force something into a surface' is a direct compositional combination of 'drive' (to push or strike/force) + 'in' (into), so the overall meaning is predictable from the parts. Although 'drive' has vehicle-related senses, the verb+particle pattern meaning 'force X in' is common and cross-linguistically transparent, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents should be able to infer the MWE.

Etymology

The verb drive in comes from the literal action of drive and in, forcing a nail, screw, or bolt into wood or metal with a hammer or drill. That's why it means 'to push something into a surface'.