ˈslave-drive, v.
[Back-formation from slave-driver.]
intr. To exploit slave labour; to demand hard or servile labour. Also trans., to demand an excessive amount of work from (a person). So ˈslave-driven ppl. a., ˈslave-driving ppl. a. and vbl. n.
| 1830 Reg. Deb. Congr. U.S. 10 May 939/1 Here they may live and flourish, until some slave-driving politician and planter of South Carolina..again chains them to a miserable dependence on South Carolina cotton and British looms. 1836 Blackw. Mag. Oct. 562/1 Ye slave driving hosts of factory and poor law commissioners. 1859 J. B. Jones Wild Southern Scenes vi. 46 The reason alleged was his alliance with the ‘slave-driving’ Blounts of the South. 1878 G. Meredith Lett. (1970) II. 565, I hope to propose myself to you for a night in January. At present I have the Devil behind me slave-driving. 1889 G. B. Shaw in Star 1 June 4/1 Bully him; slave-drive him. 1889 ― in Fabian Ess. 23 Its ferocious sweating and slave-driving. 1933 Slave-driven [see medium close-up s.v. medium B. 3 d]. a 1935 T. E. Lawrence Mint (1955) ii. xiv. 136 Corporal Hemmings again supervised the gymnasium-work today. He slave-drove us as usual. 1952 E. O'Neill Moon for Misbegotten i. 13 He's gone like Thomas and John before him to escape your slave-driving. 1957 W. Camp Prospects of Love ii. v. 61 You're not to let her slave-drive you. 1982 P. Fitzgerald At Freddie's iv. 32 There was no need for her to go back... Indeed it was probably a mistake, and might give Freddie the notion that slave-driving encourages slavery. |