envoy

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A representative of a government who is sent on a special diplomatic mission.
2. n. A minister plenipotentiary assigned to a foreign embassy, ranking next below the ambassador.
3. n. A messenger; an agent.
4. n. A short closing stanza in certain verse forms, such as the ballade or sestina, dedicating the poem to a patron or summarizing its main ideas.
5. n. The concluding portion of a prose work or a play.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. To send.
2. n. Formerly, and sometimes still archaically, a postscript to a composition, particularly a ballade or other sentimental poem, to enforce or recommend it. It sometimes served as a dedication. As a title it was often, and is still occasionally, written with the French article, l'envoy or l'envoi (len-voi′ ).
3. n. Figuratively, termination; end.
4. n. One despatched upon an errand or a mission; a messenger; specifically, a person deputed by a ruler or government to negotiate a treaty, or transact other business, with a foreign ruler or government. Formerly the word was usually applied to a public minister sent on a special occasion or for one particular purpose; hence an envoy was distinguished from an ambassador, or permanent resident at a foreign court, and was of inferior rank.
5. n. Synonyms See ambassador, 1.

Wiktionary

1. n. representative
2. n. diplomat
3. n. messenger
4. n. a short stanza at the end of a poem

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. One dispatched upon an errand or mission; a messenger; esp., a person deputed by a sovereign or a government to negotiate a treaty, or transact other business, with a foreign sovereign or government; a minister accredited to a foreign government. An envoy's rank is below that of an ambassador.
2. n. An explanatory or commendatory postscript to a poem, essay, or book; -- also in the French from, l'envoi.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a diplomat having less authority than an ambassador
2. n. a brief stanza concluding certain forms of poetry
3. n. someone sent on a mission to represent the interests of someone else