slave driver
Americannoun
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an overseer of enslaved laborers and enforcer of hierarchy and discipline in the institution of chattel slavery.
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a hard taskmaster.
His boss was a slave driver.
noun
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(esp formerly) a person forcing slaves to work
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an employer who demands excessively hard work from his employees
Etymology
Origin of slave driver
An Americanism dating back to 1800–10
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The rebels were led by Charles Deslondes, a mixed-race slave who laboured as a slave driver on Andry’s plantation.
From The Guardian • May 6, 2019
Perhaps as many five hundred joined the rebellion, led by Charles Deslondes, a mixed-race slave driver on a sugar plantation owned by Manuel Andry.
From Textbooks • Dec. 30, 2014
But in Chiang Kai-shek's China there was no slave driver with a lash.
From Time Magazine Archive
He considers the adrenals the "power station" of the sympathetic nervous system, the frontal lobe of the brain as the "slave driver."
From Time Magazine Archive
Mr. Skinner was already at his desk, for he was a slave driver who drove himself fully as hard as he did those under him.
From Cappy Ricks Or, the Subjugation of Matt Peasley by Kyne, Peter B. (Peter Bernard)
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
