car|ri|er

car|ri|er «KAR ee uhr», noun.

1. a) a person or thing that carries something. A postman is a mail carrier. A porter is a baggage carrier. b) a bearer; messenger: »

A jungle safari usually has water carriers. Troubadours and peddlers were often carriers of news.

2. a company that transports goods or people, usually over certain routes and according to fixed schedules. Bus systems, truck companies, airlines, and railroads are carriers. »

The carriers say they need to lift rates to offset higher labor, tax and service costs (Wall Street Journal).

3. a) a person or thing that carries or transmits a disease. Carriers are often healthy persons who are immune to a disease, but carry its germs. »

The outbreak of typhoid fever was traced to a single carrier.

b) a person or animal that carries and transmits a recessive gene: »

If the carrier bull is mated to a dwarf-free cow, no dwarfs will appear in the first generation, but half of the calves will be carriers (Time).

4. any rack or carriage for parcels or luggage, such as a bicycle rack for small parcels or a cart for wheeling luggage at an air terminal.

5. = aircraft carrier. (Cf. ↑aircraft carrier)

6. = carrier wave. (Cf. ↑carrier wave)

7. Chemistry. a catalytic agent which brings about, or helps in, the transference of an element or group from one compound to another: »

Iron can be a carrier of oxygen.

8. a drain or channel for water or other liquid.

9. a mechanical part or device by which something is carried, moved, or driven.

10. = carrier pigeon. (Cf. ↑carrier pigeon)

11. Carrier, a North American Indian tribe belonging to the Athapascan family, living in British Columbia.