Word.ws English Dictionary

paper driver

paper driver noun: a person who has a driver's license but never drives.

Noun

paper driver (plural paper drivers)

  1. (rare, usually non-native speakers' English) A person who has a driver's license but never drives.
    • But the average Japanese does not own a car (as an individual). I don't have the figures but someone told me that less than half of those of driving age do not own a car, moreso,^([sic]) of those who do have a license, a relatively small percentage of those with licenses own their own car, many are...1997 September 17, Mitch Sako, “NY TIMES: Japan's Economy Shrinks by 11.2% Annual Rate”, in soc.culture.japan.moderated (Usenet), retrieved 23 May 2022
    • There are people who surely should not drive. "Paper drivers" and at risk drivers should be recertified.2002 February 17, Eric Takabayashi, “I'm going to New Jersey via Wisconsin to pick up some Snickers and Mars”, in fj.life.in-japan (Usenet), retrieved 23 May 2022

Forms of paper driver

pluralpaper drivers

Origin of paper driver

Borrowed from Japanese ペーパードライバー (pēpā doraibā), from English paper + driver.

Questions about paper driver

What does paper driver mean?
Paper driver means a person who has a driver's license but never drives.
What part of speech is paper driver?
Paper driver is a noun.
What is the plural of paper driver?
The plural of paper driver is paper drivers.

Words near paper driver in the dictionary

  1. paper diapers
  2. paper doll
  3. paper dolls
  4. paper dragon
  5. paper dragons
  6. paper driver
  7. paper drivers
  8. paper enamel
  9. paper enamels
  10. paper factor
  11. paper factors

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: paper driver (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “paper driver.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/paper_driver. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.