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—driverless, adj./druy"veuhr/, n.1. a person or thing that drives.2. a person who drives a vehicle; coachman, chauffeur, etc.3. a person who drives an animal or animals, as a drover or cowboy.4. Also called number one wood. Golf. a club with a wooden head whose face has almost no slope, for hitting long, low drives from the tee.5. Mach.a. a part that transmits force or motion.b. the member of a pair of connected pulleys, gears, etc., that is nearer to the power source.6. Computers. software or hardware that controls the interface between a computer and a peripheral device.8. Brit. a locomotive engineer.9. Audio.a. the part of a loudspeaker that transforms the electrical signal into sound.b. the entire loudspeaker.10. Naut.a. a jib-headed spanker sail.b. a designation given to one of the masts abaft the mizzen on a sailing vessel having more than three masts, either the fifth or sixth from forward. Cf. pusher (def. 4), spanker (def. 1b).[1350-1400; ME drivere. See DRIVE, -ER1]
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Computer program that acts as an intermediary between the operating system and a device such as a disk drive, video card, printer, or keyboard.The driver must contain a detailed knowledge of the device, including its set of specialized commands. The presence of a separate driver program frees the operating system from having to understand the details of every device; instead, the operating system issues general commands to the driver, which in turn translates them into specific instructions for the device, or vice versa.* * *
Universalium. 2010.
