driver

Noun

1. One who drives something.
   • Luke North was working in the North East District when Harry Patterson the pony driver came by. It was 5.45 o'clock. Luke smelt danger in the air. He walked round the pony to speak with Harry […] - 2016, John Swain,...

   1. A person who drives a motorized vehicle such as a car, truck, bus, train, forklift, etc.

      • The driver will make an announcement when the trip is nearing its completion.
      • Tipping your driver is optional but is much appreciated.
      • That’s nearly twice the highest posted speed limit in the United States, 85 mph, on a stretch of highway in Texas. Why do our speedometers stretch to a speed that’s illegal, and only race-car drivers will ever reach?...

   2. (aviation, slang) A pilot (person who flies aircraft).

   3. A person who drives livestock: a drover.

      • Up until 1872 there was not over 150 miles of railroad in the state [Texas], that was from Galveston to Houston, and a short line from Houston to Brazoria, twenty-five miles in length, and one road from Harrisburg to...
2. Something that drives something else.
   • The character of work is a driver of social change, at the same time that any new forms of work are the result of broader social change. - 2014, Bridgette Wessels, Exploring Social Change: Process and Context, page 106:
   • The aim is to secure up to £140 million for the combined road and rail improvements, including a new road bridge to replace a level crossing at Totton. A key driver has been the approval of a new housing and employment...

   1. (computing) A device driver; a program that acts as an interface between an application and hardware, written specifically for the device it controls.

   2. (golf) A golf club used to drive the ball a great distance.

      • The brassey much resembled the driver, but the iron opened out quite a new field of practice; […] - 1902, Robert Marshall Grade, The Haunted Major:

   3. (nautical) A kind of sail, smaller than a fore and aft spanker on a square-rigged ship, a driver is tied to the same spars.

   4. A factor contributing to something; a cause.

      • Compared with June 2023, consumers’ perceptions of the main drivers of inflation shifted towards wages, although other input costs were still seen as the strongest driver overall. - 2024, Pedro Baptista, Colm Bates,...

   5. (engineering) Any driving element in any mechanism, which drives the driven element.

      • The driver engages the follower intermittently, as dictated by the solenoid.

      Antonyms: follower

   6. A mallet.

   7. A tamping iron.

   8. A cooper's hammer for driving on barrel hoops.

   9. A screwdriver, a nutdriver, or a bit for such a tool; such bits include nutsetters.

      • Among the driver and screw types available, you'll find several cross-slot varieties including the Reed & Prince […] - 1996, Popular Mechanics, volume 173, number 12:

   10. (audio) A device that converts an electrical signal to sound waves; the principal component of loudspeakers and headphones.

   11. (chiefly in the plural) A driving wheel of a locomotive.

       • The later iterations of these locomotives had 56-inch drivers.
       • With a toot on her chime whistle, No. 6 set her 3 ft. 9 in. drivers turning and we were off round the curve through Pennyburn works. - 1949 November and December, K. Longbottom, “By Goods Train to Gweedore”, in Railway...