taskmaster

CrossFitters work out in groups, moving to the demands of a benevolent taskmaster.

How could one face a régime in which the everlasting taskmaster held control?

In the words quoted with approval in the circular of 1835, the parish was to be "the hardest taskmaster and the worst pay-master."

One day, when Smith was threshing in the field, his cruel taskmaster beat him severely, although he had done nothing wrong.

He had been rather a hard taskmaster, though as a paymaster trustworthy; a ready-money man, just and ungenerous.

The words came in quick, gasping breaths, as a child might speak who tried to justify himself to his taskmaster.