"drive-by" meaning in All languages combined

See drive-by on Wiktionary

Adjective [English]

IPA: /ˈdɹaɪvˌbaɪ/ Audio: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-drive-by.wav [Southern-England] Forms: driveby [alternative], drive by [alternative]
Head templates: {{en-adj|-}} drive-by (not comparable)
  1. (informal, criminology) Of a crime, etc., carried out from a moving vehicle. Tags: informal, not-comparable
    Sense id: en-drive-by-en-adj--0DvHTPp Categories (other): Criminology, Automotive, Crime Disambiguation of Automotive: 31 34 36 Disambiguation of Crime: 49 0 51 Topics: criminology, human-sciences, law, sciences
  2. (figuratively) Done in a cursory or superficial manner with little regard for the issues involved; careless, offhand. Tags: figuratively, not-comparable
    Sense id: en-drive-by-en-adj-pwjqOTWM Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Entries with translation boxes, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries, Automotive Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 31 39 30 Disambiguation of Entries with translation boxes: 30 40 31 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 30 41 30 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 30 41 30 Disambiguation of Automotive: 31 34 36
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Derived forms: drive-by download, drive-by media, drive by shooting

Noun [English]

IPA: /ˈdɹaɪvˌbaɪ/ Audio: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-drive-by.wav [Southern-England] Forms: drive-bys [plural], driveby [alternative], drive by [alternative]
Head templates: {{en-noun|s}} drive-by (plural drive-bys)
  1. (informal, criminology) A crime, such as a shooting, carried out from a moving vehicle. Tags: informal Related terms: fly-by, run by, sail-by
    Sense id: en-drive-by-en-noun-nIAjroEq Categories (other): Criminology, Automotive, Crime Disambiguation of Automotive: 31 34 36 Disambiguation of Crime: 49 0 51 Topics: criminology, human-sciences, law, sciences

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

{
  "derived": [
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "drive-by download"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "drive-by media"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "drive by shooting"
    }
  ],
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "driveby",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "drive by",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "-"
      },
      "expansion": "drive-by (not comparable)",
      "name": "en-adj"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "adj",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Criminology",
          "orig": "en:Criminology",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "31 34 36",
          "kind": "other",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Automotive",
          "orig": "en:Automotive",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "49 0 51",
          "kind": "other",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Crime",
          "orig": "en:Crime",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Of a crime, etc., carried out from a moving vehicle."
      ],
      "id": "en-drive-by-en-adj--0DvHTPp",
      "links": [
        [
          "criminology",
          "criminology"
        ],
        [
          "crime",
          "crime#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "moving",
          "moving"
        ],
        [
          "vehicle",
          "vehicle"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(informal, criminology) Of a crime, etc., carried out from a moving vehicle."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "informal",
        "not-comparable"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "criminology",
        "human-sciences",
        "law",
        "sciences"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "31 39 30",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "30 40 31",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Entries with translation boxes",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "30 41 30",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "30 41 30",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "31 34 36",
          "kind": "other",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Automotive",
          "orig": "en:Automotive",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              196,
              204
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2012 April 11, L. V. Anderson, “Talking to Teens Who Tweeted Racist Things About The Hunger Games”, in Slate, archived from the original on 02 Jun 2023:",
          "text": "If the highly visible mockery of teenagers leads to a serious examination of the practices and institutions that perpetuate racism, perhaps it will be worth it. But I have my doubts. This kind of drive-by scapegoating does not seem conducive to genuine reflection (and it definitely doesn't encourage reflection in the individuals it scapegoats). It allows us to point the finger at other, younger, relatively powerless people, rather than consider the ways in which we're implicated in a problem that is much, much larger than a few misguided teenagers on Twitter.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              175,
              183
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2018 October 8, Dawn Bazely, “Why Nobel winner Donna Strickland didn’t have a Wikipedia page”, in The Washington Post, Washington, D.C.: The Washington Post Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 30 Mar 2023:",
          "text": "But what hinders students far more than the technical side is Wikipedia's editing culture. Many of their contributions got reversed almost immediately, in what is known as a \"drive-by deletion.\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Done in a cursory or superficial manner with little regard for the issues involved; careless, offhand."
      ],
      "id": "en-drive-by-en-adj-pwjqOTWM",
      "links": [
        [
          "cursory",
          "cursory#Adjective"
        ],
        [
          "superficial",
          "superficial#Adjective"
        ],
        [
          "careless",
          "careless#Adjective"
        ],
        [
          "offhand",
          "offhand#Adjective"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(figuratively) Done in a cursory or superficial manner with little regard for the issues involved; careless, offhand."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "figuratively",
        "not-comparable"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈdɹaɪvˌbaɪ/"
    },
    {
      "audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-drive-by.wav",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/6/64/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-drive-by.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-drive-by.wav.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/6/64/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-drive-by.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-drive-by.wav.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Southern-England"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "drive-by"
}

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "drive-bys",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "driveby",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "drive by",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "s"
      },
      "expansion": "drive-by (plural drive-bys)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Criminology",
          "orig": "en:Criminology",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "31 34 36",
          "kind": "other",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Automotive",
          "orig": "en:Automotive",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "49 0 51",
          "kind": "other",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Crime",
          "orig": "en:Crime",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A crime, such as a shooting, carried out from a moving vehicle."
      ],
      "id": "en-drive-by-en-noun-nIAjroEq",
      "links": [
        [
          "criminology",
          "criminology"
        ],
        [
          "crime",
          "crime"
        ],
        [
          "shooting",
          "shooting"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(informal, criminology) A crime, such as a shooting, carried out from a moving vehicle."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "fly-by"
        },
        {
          "word": "run by"
        },
        {
          "word": "sail-by"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "informal"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "criminology",
        "human-sciences",
        "law",
        "sciences"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈdɹaɪvˌbaɪ/"
    },
    {
      "audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-drive-by.wav",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/6/64/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-drive-by.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-drive-by.wav.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/6/64/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-drive-by.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-drive-by.wav.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Southern-England"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "drive-by"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English adjectives",
    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English nouns",
    "English nouns with irregular plurals",
    "English phrasal nouns",
    "English uncomparable adjectives",
    "Entries with translation boxes",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries",
    "en:Automotive",
    "en:Crime"
  ],
  "derived": [
    {
      "word": "drive-by download"
    },
    {
      "word": "drive-by media"
    },
    {
      "word": "drive by shooting"
    }
  ],
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "driveby",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "drive by",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "-"
      },
      "expansion": "drive-by (not comparable)",
      "name": "en-adj"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "adj",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English informal terms",
        "en:Criminology"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Of a crime, etc., carried out from a moving vehicle."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "criminology",
          "criminology"
        ],
        [
          "crime",
          "crime#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "moving",
          "moving"
        ],
        [
          "vehicle",
          "vehicle"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(informal, criminology) Of a crime, etc., carried out from a moving vehicle."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "informal",
        "not-comparable"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "criminology",
        "human-sciences",
        "law",
        "sciences"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              196,
              204
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2012 April 11, L. V. Anderson, “Talking to Teens Who Tweeted Racist Things About The Hunger Games”, in Slate, archived from the original on 02 Jun 2023:",
          "text": "If the highly visible mockery of teenagers leads to a serious examination of the practices and institutions that perpetuate racism, perhaps it will be worth it. But I have my doubts. This kind of drive-by scapegoating does not seem conducive to genuine reflection (and it definitely doesn't encourage reflection in the individuals it scapegoats). It allows us to point the finger at other, younger, relatively powerless people, rather than consider the ways in which we're implicated in a problem that is much, much larger than a few misguided teenagers on Twitter.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              175,
              183
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2018 October 8, Dawn Bazely, “Why Nobel winner Donna Strickland didn’t have a Wikipedia page”, in The Washington Post, Washington, D.C.: The Washington Post Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 30 Mar 2023:",
          "text": "But what hinders students far more than the technical side is Wikipedia's editing culture. Many of their contributions got reversed almost immediately, in what is known as a \"drive-by deletion.\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Done in a cursory or superficial manner with little regard for the issues involved; careless, offhand."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "cursory",
          "cursory#Adjective"
        ],
        [
          "superficial",
          "superficial#Adjective"
        ],
        [
          "careless",
          "careless#Adjective"
        ],
        [
          "offhand",
          "offhand#Adjective"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(figuratively) Done in a cursory or superficial manner with little regard for the issues involved; careless, offhand."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "figuratively",
        "not-comparable"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈdɹaɪvˌbaɪ/"
    },
    {
      "audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-drive-by.wav",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/6/64/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-drive-by.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-drive-by.wav.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/6/64/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-drive-by.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-drive-by.wav.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Southern-England"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "drive-by"
}

{
  "categories": [
    "English adjectives",
    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English nouns",
    "English nouns with irregular plurals",
    "English phrasal nouns",
    "English uncomparable adjectives",
    "Entries with translation boxes",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries",
    "en:Automotive",
    "en:Crime"
  ],
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "drive-bys",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "driveby",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "drive by",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "s"
      },
      "expansion": "drive-by (plural drive-bys)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "fly-by"
    },
    {
      "word": "run by"
    },
    {
      "word": "sail-by"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English informal terms",
        "en:Criminology"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A crime, such as a shooting, carried out from a moving vehicle."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "criminology",
          "criminology"
        ],
        [
          "crime",
          "crime"
        ],
        [
          "shooting",
          "shooting"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(informal, criminology) A crime, such as a shooting, carried out from a moving vehicle."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "informal"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "criminology",
        "human-sciences",
        "law",
        "sciences"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈdɹaɪvˌbaɪ/"
    },
    {
      "audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-drive-by.wav",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/6/64/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-drive-by.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-drive-by.wav.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/6/64/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-drive-by.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-drive-by.wav.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Southern-England"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "drive-by"
}

Download raw JSONL data for drive-by meaning in All languages combined (5.1kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-09-09 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-09-02 using wiktextract (ccec6f1 and 4deed51). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.