E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
Drive.
(Anglo-Saxon drif-an.)
1
To drive a good bargain. To exact more than is quite equable.
“Heaven would no bargain for its blessings drive.”
2
Dryden: Astræa Redux, i 137.
To drive a roaring trade. To be doing a brisk business. The allusion is to a coachman who drives so fast that his horses pant and roar for breath.
3
To drive the swine through the hank of yarn. To spoil what has been painfully done, to squander thrift. In Scotland, the yarn wrought in the winter (called the gude-wife’s thrift) is laid down by the burn-side to bleach, and is peculiarly exposed to damage from passing animals. Sometimes a herd of pigs driven along the road will run over the hanks, and sometimes they will stray over them from some neighbouring farmyard and do a vast amount of harm.
