in the driver's seat
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
In control of a situation or decision-making process
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
Đứng đầu hoặc kiểm soát một tình huống hoặc quá trình ra quyết định
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Literally: sitting in the driver's position of a vehicle
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
The Belfast headmaster was highly popular, both with the players and with the media, but the Murphy appointment will mean a definite change of emphasis in the driver's seat.
British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “in the driver's seat” mean?
In control of a situation or decision-making process Literally: sitting in the driver's position of a vehicle
Is “in the driver's seat” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.