a person who operates and controls a vehicle such as a car, bus, or truck
The driver stopped the car to let the children cross the street.
Ella works as a bus driver in the city.
✦ from the verb drive + -er, first recorded in English in the late Middle English period
a small computer program that allows a specific piece of hardware to communicate with the operating system
You need to update the printer driver to make it work with the new computer.
The graphics driver crashed while he was playing the game.
✦ figurative extension of the idea of something that 'drives' or controls another component, first used in computing in the 1960s
in golf, the longest-shafted club with a large head used to hit the ball a very long distance from the tee
He hit the ball with a driver and sent it flying down the fairway.
My new driver gives me extra distance off the tee.
✦ named because the club is used to ‘drive’ the ball; recorded in golf terminology by the late 19th century
a main factor or force that causes something important to happen or develop
Innovation is a key driver of economic growth.
Climate change is becoming the major driver of new energy policies.
✦ metaphorical use of something that ‘drives’ progress, first attested in economic writing in the early 20th century
