drove¹ / drōv/ • past of drive.drove² • n. 1. a herd or flock of animals being driven in a body: a drove of cattle. ∎  a large number of people or things doing or undergoing the same thing: tourists have stayed away in droves this summer.2. a broad chisel for use by stonemasons.DERIVATIVES: dro·ver n.

Drove

a crowd of people moving in one direction; a number of cattle or other animals driven in a body. See also concourse, drift, flock.

Examples: drove of asses; of beasts, 1350; of bullocks; of cab-drivers—Lipton, 1970; of cattle, 1555; of heresies, 1692; of horses, 1764; of immoralities, 1692; of kine [‘cattle’]; of oxen; of young shoat [‘pigs’], 1707; of sheep, 1837; of swine.

drove herd or flock of beasts, crowd. OE. drāf, f. gradation-var. *draib- of base of drīfan DRIVE.
Hence drover driver of cattle. XV (dravere); see -ER 1.