driver

Etymology

From Middle English drivere, dryvere, dryvare, equivalent to drive + -er. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Drieuwer (“driver”), Dutch drijver (“driver”), German Low German Driever (“driver”), German Treiber (“driver”).

noun

1. One who drives something, in any sense of the verb drive.
   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, John Swain, Digging Up The Pitmen, page 164
2. Something that drives something, in any sense of the verb drive.
   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, Bridgette Wessels, Exploring Social Change: Process and Context, page 106
   The aim is to secure up to £140 million for the combined road and rail improvements, including a new road bridge to replace a level crossing at Totton. A key driver has been the approval of a new housing and employment development called Fawley Waterside, with 1,500 homes planned on the site of a redundant power station on the edge of Southampton Water. December 16 2020, “Network News: "Robust case" for Fawley branch reopening”, in Rail, page 14
3. A person who drives a motorized vehicle such as a car or a bus.
   The requirement that every moving vehicle or combination of vehicles shall have a driver is deemed to be satisfied while the vehicle is using an automated driving system which complies with domestic technical regulations, and any applicable international legal instrument, […] and domestic legislation governing operation.
4. A person who drives some other vehicle.
5. (aviation, slang) A pilot (person who flies aircraft).
6. (computing) A device driver; a program that acts as an interface between an application and hardware, written specifically for the device it controls.
7. (golf) 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, Robert Marshall Grade, The Haunted Major
8. (nautical) a kind of sail, smaller than a fore and aft spanker on a square-rigged ship, a driver is tied to the same spars.
9. A mallet.
10. A tamping iron.
11. A cooper's hammer for driving on barrel hoops.
12. A screwdriver.
    Among the driver and screw types available, you'll find several cross-slot varieties including the Reed & Prince […] 1996, Popular Mechanics, volume 173, number 12
13. (audio) A device that converts an electrical signal to sound waves; the principal component of loudspeakers and headphones.
14. (usually plural) A driving wheel.
    With a toot on her chime whistle, No. 6 set her 3 ft. 9 in. drivers turning and we were off round the curve through Pennyburn works. 1949 November and December, K. Longbottom, “By Goods Train to Gweedore”, in Railway Magazine, page 353