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