drive-by

English

Alternative forms

• driveby, drive by

Adjective

drive-by (not comparable)

1. Of a crime, etc.: carried out from a moving vehicle.
2. (figuratively) Done in a cursory or superficial manner with little regard for the issues involved; careless, offhand.
   • 2012 April 11, L. V. Anderson, “Talking to Teens Who Tweeted Racist Things About The Hunger Games”, in Slate‎, archived from the original on 2023-06-02:

     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.

   • 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 2023-03-30:

     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."

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

drive-by (plural drive-bys)

1. A crime, such as a shooting, carried out from a moving vehicle.

Related terms

References

• “drive-by, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.