slave driver
noun
an overseer of enslaved laborers and enforcer of hierarchy and discipline in the institution of chattel slavery.
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slave driver
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slave-driver
slave-drivernoun(esp formerly) a person forcing slaves to work
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.
slave-driver
British
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.
See Examples For:
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
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
I shall be as grim as grim can be and a regular slave driver as far as lessons are concerned.
From Grace Harlowe's Return to Overton Campus by Jessie Graham [pseud.] Flower
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
"I'll see him a slave-driver first!" said Gideon Rand to himself, and flecked his whip.
From Lewis Rand by Mary Johnston
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 Elizabeth Cady Stanton
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