whist drive

9.8

A social event where people play whist in rounds, often to raise money

noun
/wɪst draɪv/

Archaic

: torneo de whist

Everyone, please assemble in the drawing room for this evening's whist drive.

Examples

Usually we have lots of presents for Christmas, etc., but sometimes we have to tighten our belts and go on an economy drive, which I think is a bit like a whist drive, because both of them are about raising money in times of need (once at school we had a whist drive and hot-pot supper to raise money for the Blue Peter Fund for Bangladesh).

Fiction book (2000)
Join us for a fun evening at the charity whist drive this Saturday, where teams will compete to win prizes!
The local community center is hosting a whist drive to raise funds for the new playground.
I enjoyed the whist drive last night; it was a great way to socialize while playing cards.

Surface Forms

whist drive singular

whist drives plural

Morphology

whist + drive

The compound is compositionally built: 'whist' names the card game and 'drive' denotes an organized event or campaign (as in a fundraising drive), so the phrase straightforwardly denotes an organized event for playing whist, often to raise funds. This follows a common English noun + noun naming pattern, so a B1 learner who knows both constituent meanings should be able to infer the MWE's sense.

Etymology

Whist drive may come from old card nights where people played whist and then moved from table to table between rounds, so the evening felt like a busy, moving drive. So today a whist drive is a friendly social event, often to 'raise money', where people play whist.