driver

noun16

1. •
   a person who controls a car, a bus, a train or another vehicle as it moves

   • Luke North was working in the North East District when Harry Patterson the pony driver came by. It was 5.45 o'clock. Luke smelt danger in the air. He walked round the pony to speak with Harry […] — 2016
2. •
   A person who drives a motorized vehicle such as a car, truck, bus, train, forklift, etc.

   • The driver will make an announcement when the trip is nearing its completion.
   • Tipping your driver is optional but is much appreciated.
3. •
   A person who drives livestock: a drover.
4. •
   (slang) A pilot (person who flies aircraft).
5. •
   Something that drives something else.

   • The character of work is a driver of social change, at the same time that any new forms of work are the result of broader social change. — 2014
6. •
   A factor contributing to something; a cause.

   • Compared with June 2023, consumers’ perceptions of the main drivers of inflation shifted towards wages, although other input costs were still seen as the strongest driver overall. — 2024
7. •
   Any driving element in any mechanism, which drives the driven element.

   • The driver engages the follower intermittently, as dictated by the solenoid.
8. •
   [in the plural] A driving wheel of a locomotive.

   • The later iterations of these locomotives had 56-inch drivers.
9. •
   A device driver; a program that acts as an interface between an application and hardware, written specifically for the device it controls.
10. •
    A golf club used to drive the ball a great distance.

    • The brassey much resembled the driver, but the iron opened out quite a new field of practice; […] — 1902
11. •
    A device that converts an electrical signal to sound waves; the principal component of loudspeakers and headphones.
12. •
    A screwdriver, a nutdriver, or a bit for such a tool; such bits include nutsetters.

    • Among the driver and screw types available, you'll find several cross-slot varieties including the Reed & Prince […] — 1996
13. •
    A mallet.
14. •
    A tamping iron.
15. •
    A cooper's hammer for driving on barrel hoops.
16. •
    A kind of sail, smaller than a fore and aft spanker on a square-rigged ship, a driver is tied to the same spars.