driving force

Idioms  

1. The impetus, power, or energy behind something in motion, as in He was clearly the driving force in the new administration. This term transfers the force that sets in motion an engine or vehicle to other enterprises. Ralph Waldo Emerson was among the first to use it figuratively (English Traits, 1856): “The ability of its journals is the driving force.”

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

driving force

McCreary says Brendan is often the driving force of their lyrical efforts, and “sometimes we co-write with other people. Claudio Sanchez wrote all the lyrics on ‘Sweet Misery.’

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 28, 2026

In his time as the MP for Leigh, Burnham was a driving force behind the construction of Leigh Sports Village.

From BBC ● Jul. 21, 2026

For most of modern financial history, longevity was treated as a footnote — a demographic detail, not a driving force.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 15, 2026

A driving force behind building the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center, Pritzker’s ancestors fled Russian persecution in modern-day Ukraine in the late 1800s.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 8, 2026

For a start, Newcomen could not have devised his engine without knowing about the pressure of the atmosphere, since this provides its driving force.

From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton