Carrier

Part of speech: noun (n.)

1. One who, or that which, carries or conveys; a messenger. The air which is but . . . a carrier of the sounds. Bacon.

2. One who is employed, or makes it his business, to carry goods for others for hire; a porter; a teamster. The roads are crowded with carriers, laden with rich manufactures. Swift.

3. 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.

4. A movable piece in magazine guns which transfers the cartridge to a position from which it can be thrust into the barrel. Carrier pigeon (Zoöl.), a variety of the domestic pigeon used to convey letters from a distant point to to its home. -- Carrier shell (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. -- Common carrier (Law.) See under Common, a.