释义 |
ˈslave-driver orig. U.S. [slave n.1 + driver.] An overseer of slaves; transf. an exacting taskmaster.
1807Salmagundi 13 Feb. 42 Beautiful, Oh most puissant slave-driver, as are my wives, they are exceeded by the women of this country. 1828Athenæum 29 Feb. 162/2 The scourge shall no longer sound among the Antilles, nor the image of God be trampled by the slave⁓driver into the likeness of the beasts that perish. 1830R. Walsh Notices of Brazil II. 480 A ferocious looking fellow with a scourge..who was the slave-driver of the ship. 1854Thoreau Walden 10 It is..worst of all when you are the slave⁓driver of yourself. 1857T. B. Gunn Physiol. N.Y. Boarding-Houses xv. 127 He'd been an overseer—or, as they termed it, slave-driver— down South. 1889G. B. Shaw in Fabian Ess. 193 The sweater himself, a mere slave driver paid ‘by the piece’. 1901Merwin & Webster Calumet ‘K’ x. 189 Do you think it would be worth something to the men who hire you for a dirty slave-driver to be protected from a strike? 1922E. O'Neill Hairy Ape iii. 32 Bloody slave-driver! 1948H. L. Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. II. 674 The [prison] guards are shields, screws,..slave-drivers or herders. 1975Investors Chron. 28 Feb. 589/1 He is not a slave driver but somehow generates an extremely hard-working atmosphere. |