What Does “drive something home” mean?
Definition:
If you drive something home, you make it clear to someone by emphasizing its importance.
Origin
The phrase was used as early as 1607 by Samuel Hieron in Works cited in The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms, Second Edition:
“That I may … drive home the nail of this exhortation even to the head.”
The verb to drive in this expression is not used in the sense of driving a car. It rather refers to the meaning intended in driving home a nail by the force of a blow or a thrust.
Similar idioms include:
– ram something home.
– bring something home.
– pound something into someone.
– pound something into someone’s skull.
All the above phrases use the metaphor of using physical force, suggesting the use of a certain effort to make something clear or obvious. (by emphasizing its importance.)
Example(s)
She repeated the point several times just to drive the lesson home.
He hoped this really drives the importance of thinking critically home to his students.
