quill-driver

English

Noun

quill-driver (plural quill-drivers)

  1. (colloquial) A clerk or hack writer; a pen-pusher.
    • 1791, Charlotte Smith, Celestina, Broadview 2004, p. 263:
      His brother, enraged at this insult, spoke to him very freely, which he returned no otherwise than by calling him quill-driver, and maccaroni of Mincing-lane.
    • 1803, John Davis, Travels of Four Years and a Half in the United States of America: During 1798, 1799, 1800, 1801, and 1802 (page 439)
      Passenger.—What o'clock is it?
      Mr. Adams.—That's not proper language for a ship. It becomes only a quill-driver, a grass-comber, or a sugar-baker.
    • 1900, Joseph Conrad, Lord Jim, page v. 36:
      He wouldn't be terrified with a pack of lies by a cocky half-bred little quill-driver.

References
  • 1873, John Camden Hotten, The Slang Dictionary
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