Search

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.
Transportation.

an individual or company, as a railroad or steamship line, engaged in transporting passengers or goods for profit.
common carrier.

Insurance. 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.
aircraft carrier.
Immunology. an individual harboring specific pathogenic organisms who, though often immune to the agent harbored, may transmit the disease to others.
Genetics.

an individual possessing an unexpressed, recessive trait.
the bearer of a defective gene.

Also called carrier wave. Radio. the wave whose amplitude, frequency, or phase is to be varied or modulated to transmit a signal.
Machinery. a mechanism by which something is carried or moved.
Chemistry. a catalytic agent that brings about a transfer of an element or group of atoms from one compound to another.
Also called charge carrier. Physics. any of the mobile electrons or holes in a metal or semiconductor that enable it to conduct electrical charge.
Physical Chemistry. a usually inactive substance that acts as a vehicle for an active substance.
carrier pigeon.
Painting. base1 (def 15b).
Contemporary Examples

However, it just as easily could have happened on United, US Airways, or any other carrier.
Think American Airlines Is Rotten? You Have No Idea How Good You Have It Patrick Smith October 10, 2012

The Journal notes that “the iPhone 5C will cost about $733 without a carrier subsidy in China.”
Wall Street’s Not Buying This ‘Cheap’ iPhone Daniel Gross September 10, 2013

My sister was interested in what we discovered and we wondered if she, too, might be a carrier for one of the breast cancer genes.
23andMe and Me: Why Policymakers Should Set the Genetic Testing Company Free Charles C. Johnson February 3, 2014

He survived to become an admiral known as the Father of carrier Aviation.
Navy Football Player Will McKamey Died This Week From Brain Injury. Who’s to Blame? Michael Daly March 26, 2014

George W. Bush was riding high in the media after the fall of Baghdad, when he landed on that carrier in a flight suit.
Beware the GOP Coronation Howard Kurtz October 30, 2010

Historical Examples

He’s a healthy little Mekstrom, and like his pappy, Steve Junior is a carrier, too.
Highways in Hiding George Oliver Smith

The question was asked in a mild way as if he intended to help the carrier’s memory.
The Underdog F. Hopkinson Smith

As a poor Yorkshire boy from Wharfedale, he came up to London in a carrier’s cart to seek his fortune.
Old and New London Walter Thornbury

The carrier with whom I bargained did not take me; I fell out with him.
Albert Durer T. Sturge Moore

It was a telegram, transmitted by carrier from Bacolod, which was in cable communication with Ilo-Ilo.
Caybigan James Hopper

noun
a person, thing, or organization employed to carry goods, passengers, etc
a mechanism by which something is carried or moved, such as a device for transmitting rotation from the faceplate of a lathe to the workpiece
(pathol) another name for vector (sense 3)
(pathol) a person or animal that, without having any symptoms of a disease, is capable of transmitting it to others
(physics) Also called charge carrier. an electron, ion, or hole that carries the charge in a conductor or semiconductor
short for carrier wave
(chem)

the inert solid on which a dyestuff is adsorbed in forming a lake
a substance, such as kieselguhr or asbestos, used to support a catalyst
an inactive substance containing a radioisotope used in radioactive tracing
an inert gas used to transport the sample through a gas-chromatography column
a catalyst that effects the transfer of an atom or group from one molecule to another

See aircraft carrier
a breed of domestic fancy pigeon having a large walnut-shaped wattle over the beak; a distinct variety of pigeon from the homing or carrier pigeon See also carrier pigeon
a US name for roof rack
noun
a member of an Athapaskan Native North American people of British Columbia
n.

late 14c., agent noun from carry (v.). Meaning “person or animal that carries and disseminates infection without suffering obvious disease” is from 1899; genetic sense is 1933. As a short form of aircraft carrier it dates from 1917. Carrier pigeon is from 1640s.

carrier car·ri·er (kār’ē-ər)
n.

A person or an animal that shows no symptoms of a disease but harbors the infectious agent of that disease and is capable of transmitting it to others.

A compound capable of transferring a hydrogen atom from one compound to another.

A quantity of naturally occurring element added to a minute amount of pure isotope, especially a radioactive one, to facilitate the chemical handling of the isotope.

An individual that carries, but does not express, a gene for a particular recessive trait, yet when mated with another carrier, can produce offspring that do.

carrier
(kār’ē-ər)

A person, animal, or plant that serves as a host for a pathogen and can transmit it to others, but is immune to it. Mosquitoes are carriers of malaria.

An organism that carries a gene for a trait but does not show the trait itself. Carriers can produce offspring that express the trait by mating with another carrier of the same gene. See more at recessive.

Related Terms

jeep carrier