driving force

Idioms and Phrases

The impetus, power, or energy behind something in motion, as in He was clearly the driving force in the new administration . This term transfers the force that sets in motion an engine or vehicle to other enterprises. Ralph Waldo Emerson was among the first to use it figuratively ( English Traits , 1856): “The ability of its journals is the driving force.”

Example Sentences

During the Arab Spring, social media was praised as the driving force behind a collective movement to dismantle dictatorships.

From The Daily Beast

“For many years to come Diane will be a driving force at ABC News with her exceptional storytelling genius,” he added.

From The Daily Beast

So why reauthorize the VRA now, and why should Eric Cantor be the driving force?

From The Daily Beast

As Trey grew older, his hunger for a father seemed to be the driving force of his young life.

From The Daily Beast

The driving force behind the decrease in available beds, and thus reliable care, seems fueled entirely by money.

From The Daily Beast

In that capacity for aggression upon other classes lies the essential driving force of modern affairs.

From Project Gutenberg

Learning is only possible when instinct supplies the driving-force.

From Project Gutenberg

Marx found something more in the nature of a driving force in his class hostility based on expropriation and injustice.

From Project Gutenberg

What real driving force is there in all this aspiration towards a new and wider order?

From Project Gutenberg

Now he had lost both his abandon and his rigidity and with each, a certain driving force had been taken away from him.

From Project Gutenberg