Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun One that transports or conveys.
  • noun One, such as a person, business, or organization, that deals in the transport of passengers or goods.
  • noun A mechanism or device by which something is conveyed or conducted.
  • noun Medicine A person or animal that shows no symptoms of a disease but harbors the infectious agent of that disease and is capable of transmitting it to others.
  • noun Genetics An individual that carries one gene for a particular recessive trait. A carrier does not express the trait but, when mated with another carrier, can produce offspring that do.
  • noun Physics A boson, especially a gauge boson, that conveys a force or mediates an interaction between subatomic particles.
  • noun A carrier wave.
  • noun A charge-carrying entity, especially an electron or a hole in a semiconductor.
  • noun An aircraft carrier.
  • noun An insurance or underwriting organization.
  • noun A telecommunications company.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • An old spelling of career.
  • noun In transportation, a system of endless traveling-chains supporting slats, trays, or buckets, used in transporting various materials or articles in bulk or in packages over short distances, as in a factory.
  • noun One who or that which carries or conveys.
  • noun Specifically
  • noun One who for hire undertakes the conveyance of goods or persons.
  • noun A carrier-pigeon.
  • noun One who manages or arranges affairs.
  • noun In machinery: A piece of iron fixed by a setscrew on the end of a shaft or spindle to be turned in a lathe, or to a mandrel on which a round object is driven for the purpose of being turned; a lathe-dog. A projection in the center-chuck or face-plate drives the carrier around.
  • noun The distributing-roller of a carding-machine.
  • noun A roller between the drum and the feeding-rollers of a scribbling-machine, for spinning wool.
  • noun In a braiding-machine, a spool- or bobbin-holder which follows in a curved path intersecting the paths of other bobbins, and so lays up the thread into a braid.
  • noun A hoist, as the mold-carrier in sugar-works.
  • noun (f ) Part of the breech-action of a magazine-gun. See carrier-ring.
  • noun An oyster that will bear transportation well.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun One who, or that which, carries or conveys; a messenger.
  • noun One who is employed, or makes it his business, to carry goods for others for hire; a porter; a teamster.
  • noun (Mach.) That which drives or carries; as: (a) A piece which communicates to an object in a lathe the motion of the face plate; a lathe dog. (b) A spool holder or bobbin holder in a braiding machine. (c) A movable piece in magazine guns which transfers the cartridge to a position from which it can be thrust into the barrel.
  • noun (Zoöl.) a variety of the domestic pigeon used to convey letters from a distant point to to its home.
  • noun (Zoöl.) a univalve shell of the genus Phorus; -- so called because it fastens bits of stones and broken shells to its own shell, to such an extent as almost to conceal it.
  • noun (Law.) See under Common, a.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A person or object that carries someone or something else.
  • noun A carrier pigeon, a newspaperese term (misnomer) for a homing pigeon, racing pigeon, racing homer, homer.
  • noun An Old English carrier pigeon or Old English carrier (the "King of the Doos").
  • noun A person or company in the business of shipping freight.
  • noun A person or animal that transmits a disease to others without itself contracting the disease.
  • noun A signal such as radio, sound, or light that is modulated to transmit information.
  • noun A mobile network operator; wireless carrier.
  • noun An inert material added to an active ingredient to aid in the application and/or the effectiveness of active ingredient.
  • noun A certified airline.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a self-propelled wheeled vehicle designed specifically to carry something
  • noun a boy who delivers newspapers
  • noun a radio wave that can be modulated in order to transmit a signal
  • noun (medicine) a person (or animal) who has some pathogen to which he is immune but who can pass it on to others
  • noun someone whose employment involves carrying something
  • noun a large warship that carries planes and has a long flat deck for takeoffs and landings
  • noun a rack attached to a vehicle; for carrying luggage or skis or the like
  • noun an inactive substance that is a vehicle for a radioactive tracer of the same substance and that assists in its recovery after some chemical reaction
  • noun a man who delivers the mail

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

to carry + -er

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word carrier.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.