From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]:
driver
n 1: the operator of a motor vehicle [ant: nondriver]
2: someone who drives animals that pull a vehicle
3: a golfer who hits the golf ball with a driver
4: (computer science) a program that determines how a computer
will communicate with a peripheral device [syn: driver,
device driver]
5: a golf club (a wood) with a near vertical face that is used
for hitting long shots from the tee [syn: driver, {number
one wood}]
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [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]
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
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]
From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (8 July 2008) [foldoc]:
driver
drivers
1. <operating system> device driver.
2. <programming> The main loop of an event-processing
program; the code that gets commands and dispatches them for
execution.
3. <tool> In the TeX world and the computerised typesetting
world in general, a program that translates some
device-independent or other common format to something a real
device can actually understand.
[Jargon File]
From Jargon File (4.4.4, 14 Aug 2003) [jargon]:
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.