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, in any sense of the verb drive.
   • 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. Something that drives something, in any sense of the verb drive.
   • 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.

3. A person who drives a motorized vehicle such as a car or a bus.

   The requirement that every moving vehicle or combination of vehicles shall have a driver is deemed to be satisfied while the vehicle is using an automated driving system which complies with domestic technical regulations, and any applicable international legal instrument, […] and domestic legislation governing operation.

4. A person who drives some other vehicle.
5. (aviation, slang) A pilot (person who flies aircraft).
7. (computing) A device driver; a program that acts as an interface between an application and hardware, written specifically for the device it controls.
8. (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; […]

9. (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.
10. A factor contributing to something; a cause.
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.
16. (chiefly in the plural) A driving wheel.
    • 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 [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 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

Unadapted borrowing from English driver.

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈdɾaj.veʁ/

driver m or f (plural drivers)

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

   Synonym: controlador

   • 2008, Sistemas Operacionais com Java, Sistemas Operacionais com Java, Elsevier Brasil, →ISBN, page 311:

     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.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

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