driver

Noun

WordNet 3.0

Noun (5)

the operator of a motor vehicle
someone who drives animals that pull a vehicle
a golfer who hits the golf ball with a driver
(computer science) a program that determines how a computer will communicate with a peripheral deviceSynonyms: device driver
a golf club (a wood) with a near vertical face that is used for hitting long shots from the teeSynonyms: number one wood

Webster's Dictionary (GCIDE)

Spanker \Spank"er\ (sp[a^][ng]k"[~e]r), n.

1.One who spanks, or anything used as an instrument for spanking. [1913 Webster]

2.(Naut.) The after sail of a ship or bark, being a fore-and-aft sail attached to a boom and gaff; -- sometimes called driver. See Illust. under Sail. --Totten. [1913 Webster]

3.One who takes long, quick strides in walking; also, a fast horse. [Colloq.] [1913 Webster]

4.Something very large, or larger than common; a whopper, as a stout or tall person. [Colloq.] [1913 Webster]

Spanker boom (Naut.), a boom to which a spanker sail is attached. See Illust. of Ship. [1913 Webster]

Driver \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. [1913 Webster]

2.The person who drives beasts or a carriage; a coachman; a charioteer, etc.; hence, also, one who controls the movements of a any vehicle. [1913 Webster +PJC]

3.An overseer of a gang of slaves or gang of convicts at their work. [1913 Webster]

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. [1913 Webster]

5.(Naut.) The after sail in a ship or bark, being a fore-and-aft sail attached to a gaff; a spanker. --Totten. [1913 Webster]

6.An implement used for driving; as: (a) A mallet. (b) A tamping iron. (c) A cooper's hammer for driving on barrel hoops. (d) A wooden-headed golf club with a long shaft, for playing the longest strokes. [Webster 1913 Suppl.]

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. [1913 Webster]

The Jargon File

driver n.

1.The main loop of an event-processing program; the code that gets commands and dispatches them for execution.

2.[techspeak] In device driver, code designed to handle a particular peripheral device such as a magnetic disk or tape unit.

3.In the TeX world and the computerized typesetting world in general, a program that translates some device-independent or other common format to something a real device can actually understand.