an overseer of enslaved laborers and enforcer of hierarchy and discipline in the institution of chattel slavery.
a hard taskmaster.
His boss was a slave driver.
(esp formerly) a person forcing slaves to work
an employer who demands excessively hard work from his employees
An Americanism dating back to 1800–10
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
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
Stern, on the other hand, is "a slave driver."
From Time Magazine Archive
And just to59 prove I ain't any slave driver I sort of eggs Miss Casey on, from then until the noon hour, to chat away about this war romance of hers.
From Torchy and Vee by Ford, Sewell
It is hard to have a Southern overseer; it is worse to have a Northern one; but worst of all when you are the slave-driver of yourself.”
From The New Yorker ● Oct. 19, 2015
Her staff sometimes found her abrupt, and she could be a slave-driver; there is a story that one gardener resigned after developing frostbite.
From Slate ● Mar. 18, 2015
Report relates that the slave-driver General and his rebel army fortified Dorchester Heights, across the harbor from Boston, in but one March night; and once thus positioned, they commenced shelling the town.
From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves" by M.T. Anderson
She had confidence in Mr. Lincoln, but denounced Gen. Banks, who, she said, was a hero in one place and a slave-driver in another.
From History of Woman Suffrage, Volume II by Stanton, Elizabeth Cady
The fungus turns out to be no other than a slave-driver that captures algæ in colonies and makes them work for him.
From Little Masterpieces of Science: The Naturalist as Interpreter and Seer by Iles, George
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.
