| English Dictionary |
STRIVE (striven, strove)
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
| IPA (US): |  |
, strove Dictionary entry overview: What does strive mean?
• STRIVE (verb)
The verb STRIVE has 2 senses:
1. attempt by employing effort
2. to exert much effort or energy
Familiarity information: STRIVE used as a verb is rare.
Dictionary entry details
| Conjugation: |
... he / she / it strives Past simple: strived
/ strove Past participle: strived
/ striven -ing form: striving
Sense 1
Meaning:
Attempt by employing effort
Classified under:
Verbs of political and social activities and events
Synonyms:
Context example:
we endeavor to make our customers happy
Hypernyms (to "strive" is one way to...):
assay; attempt; essay; seek; try (make an effort or attempt)
Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "strive"):
struggle (to exert strenuous effort against opposition)
be at pains; take pains (try very hard to do something)
buck (to strive with determination)
Sentence frame:
Somebody ----s to INFINITIVE
Derivation:
striving (an effortful attempt to attain a goal)
Sense 2
Meaning:
To exert much effort or energy
Classified under:
Verbs of fighting, athletic activities
Synonyms:
Context example:
straining our ears to hear
Hypernyms (to "strive" is one way to...):
drive; labor; labour; push; tug (strive and make an effort to reach a goal)
Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "strive"):
extend oneself (strain to the utmost)
kill oneself; overexert oneself (strain oneself more than is healthy)
bother; inconvenience oneself; trouble; trouble oneself (take the trouble to do something; concern oneself)
Sentence frames:
Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s PP
Context examples
To-night I shall strive hard to sleep naturally.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
In vain he strove to drive them back.
(White Fang, by Jack London)
I must struggle on: strive to live and bend to toil like the rest.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
“But no one knows, not even you,” he returned, “how much she has done, how much she has undergone, how hard she has striven. Dear Agnes!”
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
They were Maud’s hands, striving vainly to tear loose the hand that was throttling me.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
He strove in vain to see Tahiti again.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
“The more reason that I should strive to mend him,” quoth Alleyne.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
My father yielded at length to my desire to avoid society and strove by various arguments to banish my despair.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
She got her to Hartfield, and shewed her the most unvarying kindness, striving to occupy and amuse her, and by books and conversation, to drive Mr. Elton from her thoughts.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
If I lose the game, it shall not be from not striving for it.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
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