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
Stern, on the other hand, is "a slave driver."
From Time Magazine Archive
Tens of thousands of Americans who had not even read the book already knew Simon Legree as the classic slave driver and Uncle Tom as the black victim.*
From Time Magazine Archive
They have to submit to the repulsive drudgery, with no advancement except to slave driver.
From Susan Lenox: Her Fall and Rise by Phillips, David Graham
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
This was a sight not new; but in their midst he caught a glimpse of a crested helmet and the black cloak of a slave-driver.
From Nicanor - Teller of Tales A Story of Roman Britain by Kinney, Margaret West
I overdid it though, that's the worst of money, the more you get the more you want, and it's the biggest slave-driver out and spares no one.
From Scamping Tricks and Odd Knowledge Occasionally Practised upon Public Works by Newman, John Henry
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.
