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
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
But in Chiang Kai-shek's China there was no slave driver with a lash.
From Time Magazine Archive
The necessity that knows no law, is the only real slave driver, as the sojourner in Eastern exile knows full well.
From In Court and Kampong Being Tales and Sketches of Native Life in the Malay Peninsula by Clifford, Hugh Charles, Sir
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.
