Chauffeur

//ʃɒˈfɜː// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A person employed to drive a private motor car or a hired car of executive or luxury class (like a limousine).

    "He fell into a reverie, a most dangerous state of mind for a chauffeur, since a fall into reverie on the part of a driver may mean a fall into a ravine on the part of the machine."

  2. 2
    A brigand belonging to the bands who, around 1793, pillaged, burned, and killed in parts of France. historical
  3. 3
    a person paid to drive a privately owned car wordnet
  4. 4
    The driver of a fire truck.
Verb
  1. 1
    To be, or act as, a chauffeur (driver of a motor car). intransitive

    ""Old Pearson. He did gardening for us, and chauffeuring for my father. Such a dear old man - I've know him all my life.""

  2. 2
    drive someone in a vehicle wordnet
  3. 3
    To transport (someone) in a motor vehicle. transitive

Synonyms

All synonyms
backseat driverbicyclebikeboybringbus

Example

More examples

"The chauffeur will be on duty after 3 o'clock."

Etymology

Etymology 1

Borrowed from French chauffeur.

Etymology 2

From French chauffeur (“heater, stoker”), as they were said to burn the feet of their victims to extort money.

Related phrases

chauffeur driverfire truckmotor car

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.