slave driver

American  

noun

1. an overseer of enslaved laborers and enforcer of hierarchy and discipline in the institution of chattel slavery.

2. a hard taskmaster.

   His boss was a slave driver.

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slave-driver British  

noun

1. (esp formerly) a person forcing slaves to work

2. an employer who demands excessively hard work from his employees

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Etymology

Origin of slave driver

An Americanism dating back to 1800–10

Example Sentences

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

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

I feel like a slave driver when I make them study on days that were made for the open.

From Amanda — a Daughter of the Mennonites by Myers, Anna Balmer