Driv"er (?), n. [From Drive.]
1.
One who, or that which, drives; the person or thing that urges or compels anything else to move onward.
2.
The person who drives beasts or a carriage; a coachman; a charioteer, etc.; hence, also, one who controls the movements of a locomotive.
3.
An overseer of a gang of slaves or gang of convicts at their work.
4. Mach.
A part that transmits motion to another part by contact with it, or through an intermediate relatively movable part, as a gear which drives another, or a lever which moves another through a link, etc. Specifically:
(a)
The driving wheel of a locomotive
. (b)
An attachment to a lathe, spindle, or face plate to turn a carrier
. (c)
A crossbar on a grinding mill spindle to drive the upper stone
.
5. Naut.
The after sail in a ship or bark, being a fore-and-aft sail attached to a gaff; a spanker.
Totten.
Driver ant Zool., a species of African stinging ant; one of the visiting ants (Anomma arcens); -- so called because they move about in vast armies, and drive away or devour all insects and other small animals.
© Webster 1913.