carrier: Meaning and Definition of

car•ri•er

Pronunciation: (kar'ē-ur), [key]
— n.
  1. a person or thing that carries.
  2. an employee of the post office who carries mail.
  3. a person who delivers newspapers, magazines, etc., on a particular route.
    1. an individual or company, as a railroad or steamship line, engaged in transporting passengers or goods for profit.
    2. Seecommon carrier.
  4. a company that acts or functions as an underwriter or insurer.
  5. a frame, usually of metal, attached to a vehicle for carrying skis, luggage, etc., as on top of an automobile or station wagon; rack.
  6. See
  7. an individual harboring specific pathogenic organisms who, though often immune to the agent harbored, may transmit the disease to others.
    1. an individual possessing an unexpressed, recessive trait.
    2. the bearer of a defective gene.
  8. Also calledthe wave whose amplitude, frequency, or phase is to be varied or modulated to transmit a signal.
  9. a mechanism by which something is carried or moved.
  10. a catalytic agent that brings about a transfer of an element or group of atoms from one compound to another.
  11. Also calledany of the mobile electrons or holes in a metal or semiconductor that enable it to conduct electrical charge.
  12. a usually inactive substance that acts as a vehicle for an active substance.
  13. See
  14. base (def. 15b).
Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Copyright © 1997, by Random House, Inc., on Infoplease.
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