driver

From Middle English drivere, dryvere, dryvare, equivalent to drive +‎ -er. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Drieuwer (“driver”), Dutch drijver (“driver”), German Low German Driever (“driver”), German Treiber (“driver”).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈdɹaɪ.və(ɹ)/
• (US) enPR: drīʹvər, IPA^(key): /ˈdɹaɪvɚ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪvə(ɹ)

driver (plural drivers)

1. One who drives something.
   • 2016, John Swain, Digging Up The Pitmen, page 164:

     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 […]

   2. 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.

      • 2024 December 25, Elaine S. Povich, “Self-driving cars aren’t here yet, but states are getting the rules ready”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name)‎:

        Earlier this month, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration began an investigation into four crashes of Teslas operating with a partial-automation system (which can navigate highways and steer the car on city streets but requires a licensed driver to be present), including one in which a pedestrian was killed. In a news release, NHTSA said reduced visibility may have led to the crashes.

   4. (aviation, slang) A pilot (person who flies aircraft).
   6. A person who drives livestock: a drover.
      • 1920, W.F. Cude, “Trail driving to Kansas and elsewhere”, in J. Marvin Hunter, editor, The Trail Drivers of Texas: Interesting Sketches of Early Cowboys and Their Experiences on the Range and on the Trail During the Days that Tried Men's Souls — True Narratives Related by Real Cowpunchers and Men who Fathered the Cattle Industry in Texas‎, volume 1, George W. Saunders, page 192:

        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 Alton, three miles east of Columbus. So the cattle driving to Kansas was the only hope at that time, and it proved to be a great help before the railroads got around. Trail driving to Kansas lasted from 1866 to 1886 and it was estimated that fully eight million head of cattle and horses were driven and sold during the twenty years above mentioned to Kansas, the drivers paying for the cattle on an average of $10.00 per head, although most of the horses came back to Texas and were used the next year. There were all sizes of herds from five hundred to twenty-five hundred cattle in a drove, usually seven or eight men to the small herds and twelve to fifteen men with the large herds.

2. Something that drives something else.
   • 2014, Bridgette Wessels, Exploring Social Change: Process and Context, page 106:

     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.

   • 2020 December 16, “Network News: "Robust case" for Fawley branch reopening”, in Rail, page 14:

     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 development called Fawley Waterside, with 1,500 homes planned on the site of a redundant power station on the edge of Southampton Water.

   2. (computing) A device driver; a program that acts as an interface between an application and hardware, written specifically for the device it controls.
   4. (golf) A golf club used to drive the ball a great distance.
      • 1902, Robert Marshall Grade, The Haunted Major:

        The brassey much resembled the driver, but the iron opened out quite a new field of practice; […]

   6. (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.
   8. A factor contributing to something; a cause.
   10. (engineering) Any driving element in any mechanism, which drives the driven element.

       Antonym: follower

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

   11. A mallet.
   12. A tamping iron.
   13. A cooper's hammer for driving on barrel hoops.
   14. A screwdriver.
       • 1996, Popular Mechanics, volume 173, number 12:

         Among the driver and screw types available, you'll find several cross-slot varieties including the Reed & Prince […]

   15. (audio) A device that converts an electrical signal to sound waves; the principal component of loudspeakers and headphones.
   17. (chiefly in the plural) A driving wheel of a locomotive.

       The later iterations of these locomotives had 56-inch drivers.

       • 1949 November and December, K. Longbottom, “By Goods Train to Gweedore”, in Railway Magazine, page 353:

         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.

• → Japanese: ドライバー (doraibā)
  • → Hakka: 多拉把 (tô-lai-pá, tô-lai-pà, tò-lái-pà)
  • → Hokkien: 螺賴把 / 螺赖把 (lo͘-lài-bà)
• → Hokkien: 嚦峇 / 呖峇 (lē-bā)
• → Scottish Gaelic: draibhear

Borrowed from English driver.

• driveur

• IPA^(key): /dʁaj.vœʁ/

driver m (plural drivers)

1. (golf) driver

Adapted borrowing of English drive +‎ -er.

• IPA^(key): /dʁaj.ve/

driver

1. (golf outside Louisiana, Cajun) to drive

• “driver”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé , 2012.

• verdir

Unadapted borrowing from English driver.

driver m or f by sense (invariable)

1. driver (in a trotting race; tennis player good at driving)

driver m (invariable)

1. driver (golf club; computer module)

driver

1. present tense of drive

• (of the noun) pådriver

Portuguese Wikipedia has an article on:

Driver de dispositivo

Wikipedia ^pt

Unadapted borrowing from English driver.

driver m (plural drivers)

1. (computing) driver (program acting as interface between an application and hardware)

   Synonym: controlador

   • 2008, “Implementação do sistema de arquivos” (chapter 11), in Daniel Vieira, transl., Sistemas Operacionais com Java, 7th edition, Rio de Janeiro: Elsevier Brasil, translation of Operating System Concepts with Java by Abraham Silberschatz, Peter Baer Galvin, and Greg Gagne, →ISBN, page 311, column 1:

     As informações de boot podem ser armazenadas em uma partição separada. Mais uma vez, ela tem seu próprio formato, pois, no momento do boot, o sistema ainda não carregou drivers de dispositivo do sistema de arquivos e, por isso, não pode interpretar o formato do sistema de arquivos.

• “driver”, in iDicionário Aulete (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2025
• “driver”, in Dicionário infopédia da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Porto: Porto Editora, 2003–2025
• “driver”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2025
• “driver”, in Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), São Paulo: Editora Melhoramentos, 2015–2025

Swedish Wikipedia has an article on:

golfklubba

Wikipedia ^sv

Borrowed from English driver.

driver c

1. (golf) a driver (club)

• putter

driver

1. present indicative of driva

• driver in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• driver in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)

• vrider